Wishing you well
by Kissufication
Summary: After an ANBU squad tracked a dangerous, unkown monster down, it tries to murder them all. Only a black-haired girl in a black kimono can destroy the thing. But who is she and where does she come from? - T for fighting
1. Chapter 1

**Wishing you well** – Chapter 1: A mission and failures

**_I_**_n general – Just so you know  
_

**S**akura **P**oV

Ten months ago, after long fighting periods—well known by everyone—, we had managed to destroy the follower of Danzou, who were still remaining in Konoha after their "master's" death, and replaced the—too old—elders with more suited ones, who were at least able to think about matters more objective and eventually come up with new ideas or creative solutions. Madara and Kabuto had been able to escape—_thanks_ to a whole bunch of strange fighting puppets without a face or soul who were sent by the former apprentice of the snake Sannin. Instead of the two most dangerous S-Nuke-nins, we got Sasuke back in Konoha. He wasn't allowed to use chakra at all (and so weren't the women and the two guys who accompanied him) and still wasn't used to do everything only with his hands.

Naruto and me were glad that he was back home, yes. But a part of me was mad at him, for risking his life and our life and making us worry and kind of heartbroken. At some point, I feared for the safety of Naruto's and my mind. I could rip the bastard's head off just because of how he stares at us when we pass by each other. And that's was out contact our so-called "realtionship" became—a glance and nothing more. If you ask me what he is doing all day than you can't expect something more than a shrug. He is and I fear he will ever be unattainable. At least for us. His former friends.

But I do miss him aside of the complicated way of our _thing_. And I even miss him right now because we didn't grow closer. "The time is out of joint," as Shakespeare would say and I was afraid since the fighting ended. Because the time we had to know each other again, form one of Naruto's bonds again _was_ over and the dumb feeling inside me told me that there was something coming that would disturb the new (and well-deserved) peace of Konoha once more.

_The actual problem_

It had been a nice day. A day with a baby blue sky and white, fluffy clouds which were spread all over the blue like cotton wool. Nobody sensed it – I mean, something dangerous around the village. On that very day – along with all the sunshine and the ice-cream the kids of the village had eaten – the blood in front of the northern gates made a awfully conspicuous contrast to the sky.

The guards had gotten Tsunade immediately after they had found the Jo-nin and I followed my Shisho. As her apprentice it was my duty and following her lead will be my duty until my very death.

Neither of us had seen a wound like that before. At first, we assumed the weapon had been a sword or something with a _very_ sharp blade but there were more strokes than one and they all were parallel. More like claws. Shisho chose a squad of four ANBU with a medic. She wanted to sent Shizune with the squad first but she needed her for paperwork and hospital stuff. And I knew most of the ANBU better anyway and so, she literally had to sent me with them.

That way, I could feel at least a bit useful.

_My apartment – Twenty-four hours after the discovering of the Jo-nin  
_

My hands were actually working all by themselves. They surely knew from memory how they should put what into which pocket and even if they had something like an artificial intelligence in them, I wouldn't mind. I was thinking about these strange things – like AI in my hands – because I felt the desire to run away, to avoid the mission. It was allowed to have strange thoughts if you were afraid.

I noticed after a few seconds of just standing there that my backpack was ready and full and I threw a nervous look out of my kitchen window. Five minutes left. Five minutes left of my time in my safe apartment. I moved out of my parent's house a few months ago because I was old enough and ready to live alone. There wasn't much time I spent home, so they weren't really missing my presence since I was outside most of my time.

For five or six seconds, I imagined the faces of my parents – my kind mother, my short-tempered father.. I allowed a happy grin to cross over my features and let a small laugh escape my mouth. "Oh dear," I murmured and put my backpack on "If I return alive, I will visit them for at least a week."

The weather was still nice and the bright sun made my fear nearly disappear. My teeth were clenched and the muscle near my chin tensed, though. I never really imagined an enemy that was seemingly indestructible and.. terrifying. I knew that Kiba and Lee were involved in this mission, too, but there were two more Anbus to go and I was almost afraid, one could be Naruto.

A sorrowful look appeared in my eyes when I thought of that. Shisho told me before, sending Naruto on a mission like the current one was totally out of question since it would be rather stupid to let a powerful animal-like creature like the Kyuubi appear in this, but I just couldn't take the thought of Naruto just tagging along, away from my mind. I truly wished for his safety and the strange creatures shouldn't lay their claws on him. After all the fights, he was the one who deserved some peace the most.

While I had been wrapped up in my – in some way melancholic – thoughts, the gates showed up. Shisho was waiting, with her a tall guy. Short black hair, almost white skin and a shirt that didn't cover his well-trained stomach. Sai. "Sakura!" Shisho greeted happily and Sai sent me one of these disgustingly faked smiles. "You are early! As expected from my little apprentice!" Tsunade grinned in her own, mischievous way and I took out two X-ray photographs.

"Those two were taken from Takahata-san. The creatures that attacked him crushed his shoulder in _one_ blow. It seems, one of their strokes can be compared to one of our chakra punches." My favorite blonde Shisho frowned at the X-rays and then pointed to the second one I hid under the first. "And what's that one about?"

My hand wavered only slightly when I hold the X-ray against the sunlight. "The bones in the leg aren't crushed by a stroke. They're broken by stepping. _It_ stepped on the leg." "And crushed it that badly?" I managed to nod. "What informations do we have of these things in general?" Sai asked and I threw him a hurried look while taking some little index cards out of my pocket. "They are heavy and they can sense energy or chakra in some way because Takahata-san was hidden in a high tree when it attacked him. They are also strong and fast enough to land a strike against a good Jo-nin," I explained. Sai looked thoughtful.

"Do we know if these things have a weak point after all?" he wondered in his typical Sai way and I suddenly felt Shisho's eyes laying on me, too. I smiled, almost sadly. "We'll see that when we find it."

"We'll see what, Sakura-san?"  
"Yeah, what exactly are you talkin' about, Sakura?"  
Lee and Kiba approached our little group and behind them, I could see Neji in a not really good mood. They all carried a backpack and pockets around their thighs. "So, we're complete now," I croaked and cleared my throat nervously. Tsunade observed me closely enough to notice my nervousness and then turned her gaze slowly to the three Anbu who had just arrived.

"Listen carefully, you three," she started and folded her arms, "The creatures are strong, fast and most likely able to sense your energy. You have to be extremely carefully and if one comes in sight, stay together, attack together and try to watch the effect of the attacks. Got it? Good. The leader of this mission will be none other than nobody. You are a squad and I expect _extraordinary_ work from you as in perfect teamwork if you have to fight. Got that, too?" We all nodded and I sighed quietly. "Now, leave and sent me a bird or a message or something if you were able to discover _anything_."

A last and final nod and we all disappeared through the gates of our home into the danger of the outside world.

_Two days and nine hours later – 2:00 am; The woods  
_

Sweat was flowing down my temples. I coughed, Sai hovered over me and in the next moment, was pressing me down on the floor. He whispered – almost too silent for my ears to hear – , "Don't move. Suppress your chakra. Don't breath." The beats of his heart seemed to pound against my back and to echo in my ears but maybe, that was a hallucination. It could be only my heartbeat after all.

God, we did found the creature. A terrifying, awful and disgusting thing it was. Laying under Sai, it was difficult to slowly turn around so that I was laying on my back. But I had to do it because his shoulder was bleeding. Badly. After I had moved almost silently, my hand flew to Sai's shoulder and I pressed my chakra into him. A hiss – as silent as my movement before – escaped through his clenched teeth because I wasn't gentle. I put a hand over his mouth, looking him in the eyes.

It sounds more romantic than it really was.

He was trained to bear pain noiselessly and every time I remembered that, it made me sad all over again.

I could suddenly sense it as its energy was spiking up and I could hear the fighting screams of Neji, Kiba and Lee when I pushed Sai off me. "I'll go help!" I screamed and dashed into the direction where the fighting sounds could be heard. They all came in sight at once – my friends, avoiding the claws of the creature, dancing in a strange way, and attacking with Byakugan, Taijutsu and Gijū Ninpō. But the creature itself made me gasp although I saw it only fifteen minutes ago.

It was huge, twice as big as a very tall man, moved like a lizard and had a thick, black skin, which kunais couldn't stick through. We tried and failed. The white mask on its face had two horns on each side of the mask and a red circle on the forehead. Neither of us had ever seen something like that.

"NEJI!" My lungs burst with my scream when Neji jumped in front of Lee, who had been thrown against a tree and was unconscious. Blood sprayed out of Neji's chest and the only wish I had in that very moment was: Destroy this thing.

Said thing growled with satisfaction, licked some of the blood off his claws, and attempted to make another stroke. But I was faster. For the first time, I had been faster than the dangerous enemy. At least it felt that way.

My fist and the mask collided with a loud crash. The white material cracked, splintered and finally broke. A wave of joy flowed through my mind. The painful scream of the thing stopped that, though. Horrified, I watched dust, splinters and earth whirling around while the thing was _transforming_. I preyed it would stop but it didn't. It was shrinking. Slowly but steady.

"DAMN IT!"

A loud crash, a black shadow sprinting to the thing, a strange, muttered name and another painful shriek of the creature – then, everything went quiet.

In front of me stood a girl. She was small-framed, with big, violet eyes and black hair. A strand of her hair fell over her nose and ended on the lower part of her right cheek. The ends of her hair were in some way or another pointed upwards. Only slightly, though. She wore a black shihakushō, with a white one underneath, and straw-zōri with white tabi. Her obi was white and in a firm grip, she hold a white katana. Its blade was also white, with a long ribbon and the end of the hilt.

She passed each of us a look and then looked at her sword. When the weapon also transformed – though into a rather ordinary katana and not into something more dangerous – , our shinobi minds literally blew up. In a mere second, we had surrounded her. "Make a move and I'll crush every single bone inside your body." My voice sounded to harsh to belong to me but behind my Anbu mask, I felt safe enough to be unfriendly. The girl blinked. "You can see me?" Her slim fingers wound around the hilt of her sword again and that was when I tackled her.

"Answer now, girl, who are you?", questioned Sai and took a hold of her right wrist while Lee took the other one. "Why can you touch me?" she asked angrily instead of giving an answer and I turned to Neji and Kiba. "What should we do? She has destroyed the thing in one blow. She might be dangerous, we can't risk that." Neji wasn't to happy with taking the girl with us but I knew he got Kiba's point.

His white eyes were invisible to the girl. I could imagine the icy sparkle within his white eyes, when he turned to her. "Girl, what is your name?" he demanded and his long brown hair was slightly moved by the wind. After a few seconds, it seemed to be that she was refusing to say anything. The Hyuuga was growing short on patience as the seconds flew by and I shoved myself between the two. "Look, girl. We don't want to harm you. You destroyed the creature that threatened our village and its inhabitants. The handcuffs will be removed after we brought you to Hokage-sama. The honor of a Shinobi forbids to harm rescuers of our village. Or do you plan to be a problem? To kill our inhabitants or even aim for Hokage-sama?"

The black haired girl seemed to be surprised by the fact that she had been handcuffed. "I won't bring any danger to you or your village but I wish for you to remove the handcuffs immediately and let me go. I, too, have a place where I have to return to." That brought me on Kiba's side – where had she return to? If that place had been a hidden village, she would have given us the name by seeing the signs of Konoha. Since she obviously wasn't a Shinobi from a hidden village, where did she come from?

Kiba barked in surprisingly and lifted the unknown stranger by the obi at her back – of course she protested and started shouting at him until he put her down again. On his Ninken which made her waver for an unknown reason. "You'll ride on Akamaru as we all are more or less injured by the creature which you seem to know more than well enough to teach us about its race." Lee patted the girl on the shoulder and gave her a wide grin – which she couldn't see – along with a thumbs up. "Don't worry, Ko-chan! While Hime is here, there won't be even a scratch on your marvellous skin!"

The girl gave us a helpless look and we jumped off into the night again. Over the days we had to fight various robbers and smaller nuke-nins; nothing that could even be compared to Akatsuki in its wildest dreams. But still.. We were tired and at some point low at chakra. Afterwards, I was glad that I brought those special handcuffs along.

They were made out of holy silver steel and were to bind all kind of energies together. Tsunade gave them to me since the creature could be something like a demon and therefore had an amount of spiritual energy.

At that point, it had been out of question if the girl had anything to do with spiritual things. We would learn all of that later.

But the reason why she was nervous and not feared made me wonder after all.

**To be continued...**

_A/N:_

Hello guys!

If anyone wonders – I used a few Japanese/Naruto/Bleach words. I'll explain them here, just in case someone forgot there meaning.

**Byakugan** – A jutsu for the eyes that makes it possible to see the chakra system of the enemy and see through material like stone and wood. It's the Kekkei Genkai ("Blood Legacy") of the Hyuuga clan.  
**Taijutsu** – Means the fighting with your body as in karate, taekwondo and other martial arts.  
**Gijū Ninpō** – That's the kind of jutsu you're doing with a Ninken ("Ninja Dog"). So it's describing every jutsu that Kiba's using with Akamura. (Only the ones they're doing together.)  
**Shihakushō** – The thing that all Shinigamis are wearing.  
**Obi** – The white belt all Shinigamis are wearing.  
**Straw-Zōri **– Sandals made out of straw.  
**Tabi **– White socks you wear under the zōri. They have two seperated parts where the toes are, because there is the string that gives you hold and it's between your big toe and the other four.  
**Katana** – Traditional, Japanese Sword. (Not all zanpakutōs are formed like a katana but Sode no Shirayuki – Rukia's zanpakutō – is.)  
**Ko-chan** – "Ko" means child so because of her appearance and height, Lee is calling her something like sweetie or cutie or sonnie. A name you would use for a five-year-old.  
**Hime** – Japanese word for "Princess". Normally it's a suffix used for a princess but since Lee don't want to use Sakura's real name, he used it as a cover name.

(If anyone didn't already notice—I don't own Bleach or Naruto and I don't own (and certainly wouldn't) earn money with this story.)

Tell me what you think, please! :)

xoxo, Kissufication


	2. Chapter 2

**Wishing you well** – Chapter 2: Loads of problems and questions

======

**_T_**_he woods  
_

Rukia PoV

It had been obvious. Obvious from the very beginning.  
She shouldn't have gone through the portal. She just shouldn't have. Maybe her brother was right after all—she maybe really wasn't suited for a seated officer or someone who was trusted with responsibility in general.

Her violet eyes observed every one of the warriors closely and she knew, they were aware of it. It was clear to her that the mess she was in, was very bad. Actually, it couldn't be worse, could it? She could imagine the look of her brother that would cross his features when she would finally see him again—kind of disappointed but satisfied at the same time because he had been right. Again.

If the last time she had cried, wouldn't have been back a long time ago, she would have started right away. She was captured by strangers (Luckily warriors because if they were civilians... Well, that would have been embarrassing.) who looked like they were taken out of a video game from the human world. One of the brutal ninja ones, Ichigo's sister Karin played once in a while when there was nothing else to do.

When the only girl of her capturers had tackled her, her whole body had felt somehow numb. She had been shocked, to say the least, that they could touch her for real. And handcuff her, too. Back at the time when she had Ichigo met, it had been the same. Kind of foolish at the second thought.

And now, she, Rukia Kuchiki of the thirteenth division, sat on this _dog_. But this dog wasn't a normal one, no. Of course it wasn't because the most normal things were _never_ normal when she was assigned alone to a mission. Never.

Anyway, this dog wasn't a dog. It was five or six or even seven times bigger then the dogs she knew and was instead of just being a cute little doggie, a monstrous, nervous small horse with only the appearance of a dog. Of course she wasn't scared of dogs or horses or dogs who were sized like small horses but it did make her feel... threatened. Or uneasy. Or a mix between those things.

One of the warriors held her in place, with a firm grip on her shoulder, so that she wouldn't fall off the dog's back. He switched his hand a few times from her shoulder to her neck and—after an hour or two—back. His mask was shaped like the face of a wolf with red outlines and teeth in the same colour. At the back of his head, short, spiky brown hair could be seen and reminded her of the fur of the horse-dog. The strange animal was obviously his as it never left his side. Even two or three feet of space between them seemed to make the animal unsatisfied.

Rukia was more then just impressed by the way the group was moving. Their movements were flawless and precisely made although they seemed tired and to make their way kind of loose.

The night was slowly being dragged away by the first dappled sunlight and this clean, nice light that went along with the morning. The light made it easier for Rukia to observe her five "companions". Her own heartbeat was calmer then she expected it to be while she was somehow soothed by the constant up and down of the jumping. The black haired shinigami had the feeling that those five people weren't exactly bad. She had a—blurred but still very strong—feeling about that.  
At that point, Rukia started to wonder, what exactly they _were_. Because they had energy attached to them—like all living beings had—but in a totally different way then what she had experienced in the human world so far. The energy was harder and sharper then reiatsu and if she concentrated on detecting and touching it with her resources, the result amazed her.

The feeling could be compared to stroking over rough stone that won't really cut your skin open but still makes it irritated. Rukia was convinced of at least a basic common ground between reiatsu and the unknown energy within these... shinohs, or whatever they called themselves—she didn't really get that.

Rukia focused her gaze on the handcuffs around her wrists. Somehow, she had appeared to be depressed because after at least two hours jumping, someone talked to her. It was the guy who stabilized her on his monster-dog, his voice all hollow through the mask.

"Don't worry, you'll get rid of these handcuffs soon. Fifteen minutes to go, then we'll reach the gates of Konoha. You won't be treated badly, don't worry." With his free hand, he patted her on the shoulder and the smaller girl managed a smile. Even without seeing herself, Rukia could tell, the smile was the probably worst one she had ever made.

Before she could answer something to the actually nice words of the warrior, the most enthusiastic guy she ever came across, exclaimed happily, "They're waiting for us at the gates! Hokage-sama herself, along with four other people! Aren't you guys so excited, too, about this youthful gesture?" Rukia's stomach gave off a weird, anxious feeling about that "youthful gesture" and the other four didn't bother to answer. Instead of saying something, Rukia could watch them change their attitude.

They all straightened up, rearranged their clothing and masks and cleaned everything as far as possible. The violet eyes of the shinigami noticed the sudden seriousness, floating through the air and settling down on everyone.

But of all things—the immediate arrival and the final jump through some leafs and branches startled her the most. A few green leafs were stuck in her hair and she shook her head from left to right to get rid of them.

A blonde woman stepped forward and Rukia felt a large amount of energy swirling around and pushing against her own, putting her under a lot of pressure. "I take it that your mission was successful?" the woman asked and her brown eyes switched from one of the fighters to another. "You three," she growled and pointed at the dog-owner, the enthusiast and the one who had this nasty cut over his chest which was still bleeding. "You three go to the hospital and straight into Shizune's room—she can't wait to treat you."

The dog-owner passed his companions a look and then made a short nod down to her. The only girl came over and lifted her up without any effort. She knew that she wasn't weighing tons but she wasn't a feather either. "Go, and don't dare to come back still injuried," the girl threatened mockingly and her chest vibrated with muffled laughter.

Murmuring a grumpy "haha", the three boys entered the village through the gates and disappeared soon over the roofs. Rukia watched them fade to nothing but an unreal shadow in pale colours.

The blonde woman sighed quietly and then spun around. The warrior who carried her started to follow but stopped when the superior turned to her again. "Are you injured?" she asked all of a sudden and in her light brown eyes appeared something that seemed to resemble sorrow. "And if you're not, is the girl?" A shake of the head was all the blonde received as an answer from her fighter and a satisfied look slipped over her eyes. "Then take the girl to an Anbu-apartment and treat her. I'll visit you as soon as I've heard everything from the three guys." Her eyes fixed on the guy who didn't tag along with the other three. "You go, too. See you."

Silent ten minutes later, Rukia, the female warrior and the last guy entered a small apartment. The shinigami felt a part of her reaitsu and nearly all the energy of the other two drawn away the moment they crossed the threshold. "What is this..?" escaped Rukia through clenched teeth because her body felt weaker with the loss of reaitsu.

"It's a barrier to keep the chakra inside low. Because with low chakra, prisoners can't escape with a trained Anbu in here," the last guy answered and Rukia swallowed too much air and coughed. "I'm a prisoner?" She didn't fear the word itself but the meaning it would have to her superiors.

The girl sighed and put Rukia on a black sofa. It was large and soft and she sunk into it like it was made out of clouds. "No, you're not a prisoner. You're here because we can keep you under observation until Hokage-sama arrives."

Rukia watched the two others as they arranged themselves next to each other at the wall. They didn't keep talking but stood there like they were made out of stone and were _so_ silent. Even the maids in the Kuchiki mansion weren't as silent as those two.

Before her mind had the chance to calm down and start to think things over, the blonde woman exploded through the door and literally soaked the situation of the room in.

"Good Morning," she said—nearly excessively excited—and glanced at her two warriors, "How are you feeling?" That question was addressed to the the girl and the last guy and they nodded as if they wanted to say "Fine".

The blonde woman plopped herself down on one of the three black armchairs and indicated to her warriors to do the same. "My name is Tsunade and I am the Godaime Hokage of the hidden village of leafs—Konoha." Rukia's violet orbs grew bigger with every strange word the blonde woman said.  
Godaime Hokage?  
Hidden village?  
Konoha?  
She had never heard of such a strange place.

"Who are you and where do you come from?" For a whole minute, silence was everything that slipped from Rukia's mouth. Could she risk to tell the truth about her whereabouts? About her home? "If you don't _want_ to play along, we can transfer our little talk to another room where the rules are a bit stricter than here," Tsunade informed her and Rukia decided that she had nothing to lose. With these handcuffs on, she couldn't escape. It was a bit foolish to hope but there was a tiny little chance that they would let her go.

"My name is Kuchiki Rukia." Break. "And I am a _shinigami_."

======

_**S**__eireitei, Soul Society_

"The dimension door is constantly closing and there is no sign of Kuchiki. The substitute shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo is asking for the permission to follow her." Yamamoto-soutaichou frowned and then, stroaked with his fingers through his long, white beard. "He can't go alone and _if_ we decide to send someone along.. Well, we don't know if they can or will return, do we?"

Kisuku Urahara made a small step forward and cleared his throat. "Excuse me, Yamamoto-soutaichou, but.. We can tell if they come back. Or more precisely—I can tell. And they can. It's possible to open the gate between the dimension with only three or four hours between. Sending Ichigo and another shinigami is harmless."

The old man coughed but raised his thin eyebrows nonetheless. "If our experts say so.. Unfortunately, you have forgotten the main problem, Urahara-taichou." Kisuki straightened up. A stiff smile showed up on his face. "And that would be, Yamamoto-soutaichou?" he asked.

Yamamoto smiled back. "The reason why Kuchiki Rukia is missing at the first place." Everyone looked surprised—this thought hadn't crossed their mind before.

Suddenly, the doors were opened fast and crashed loud against the walls. "Soutaichou!" Ichigo screamed with a pained expression on his face "Let me go! I'm not a real member of Soul Society so you won't exactly miss me! But you can't let her be in that world! _She_ is a real member of Soul Society!"

Hitsugaya Toushiro, Kuchiki Byakuya and Soi Fon passed the intruder of the captain's meeting a sour look. Though they said nothing.

"So you wish to risk your life for Kuchiki Rukia once more?" Yamamoto asked and rested his chin on his crossed fingers "Though you might be trapped inside this world? Together with Kuchiki Rukia? Is that your wish?" "Yes, it is! And I know that there are others who are willing to accompany this mission!" The soutaichou raised his eyebrows again although he was still smiling gently as if he was talking to a little child that wanted candy.

Yamamoto's fukutaichou stepped forward and glared at Ichigo for the disrespectful behaviour against the mightiest of all shinigami. "And who would that be?" The substitute shinigami looked so satisfied that it was clear to everyone—the strawberry head had waited for this question.

"Matsumoto Rangiku, Abarai Renji, the substitute Inoue Orihime and..." His sharp brown eyes twichted to the direction of the small prodigy. Teal eyes closed for two seconds, before focusing on Yamamoto. "I will," filled Hitsugaya in and nodded once. For a single moment—it was absolutely silent in the room and at least two pairs of eyes rested on Byakuya. Toushiro and Ichigo both expected the powerful head of the Kuchiki clan to do nothing but he surprised them by nodding.

His dark, strong voice made them all shiver for some unknown reason. "I will, too, take the risk."

Yamamoto observed Ichigo, Toushiro and Byakuya closely, before a heavy sigh could be heard from him. "If three of my captains will risk their being for this girl.. Do I had a real chance from the beginning?" The expression in Yamamoto's old wrinkled face told them, they wouldn't only risk their lives in this mission.

======

_**T**__he portal, Seireitei, Soul Society_

Urahara had his walking stick pointed at the cut which seemed to be floating through the air. Though it was not moving more than a few inches, it still looked like it was flickering or would disappear every second. The cut was about the size of Zaraki Kenpachi, the captain of the eleventh dimension, and only a little bit slimmer than him.

Now and then, a blurred sight of green leaves could be seen in the dark violet fog that swirled in the cut.

Urahara studied a clock he brought with him and then looked at the shinigami in front of him.

"Are you prepared?" the blonde man asked and narrowed his eyes, "You certainly can't return until tomorrow morning. If the daytime is different in there, keep the time in sight, okay? From now, you have roughly twenty-six hours until I've managed to study this dimension cut enough to open it about every three hours. Send a bird or something if anything happens." He passed everyone a final stern look and then stepped aside, so that the first shinigami could enter the other world.

"Rukia.. We're coming...!" Ichigo's voice was low and rough as he started to run and jumped through the cut.

**To be continued...**

A/N:

Hello!

I know, since I've put the first chapter online, a long time has passed by.. -.-° But, you know, I was super-busy! òó' Really. But anyway—here's the next chapter!

(If anyone didn't already notice—I don't own Bleach or Naruto and I don't own (and certainly wouldn't) earn money with this story.)

**Taichou** – Suffix/title which means "captain".  
**Fukutaichou** – Suffix/title that means something like "co-captain".  
**Soutaichou** – Suffix/title which means "main captain".  
**Godaime** – Name for the fifth Hokage. (**Go** means five in Japanese.)  
**-sama** – Suffix for a superior to show him great respect.

Lots of sunshine for everyone! *had vacation*

Kissufication


	3. Chapter 3

**Wishing you well** – Chapter 3: Confrontations... everywhere. 

**_A_**_nbu-Apartment  
_

Rukia PoV

The three people on the armchairs exchanged a glance which Rukia couldn't really identify. "You don't believe me?", she guessed and received nodding. She knew better than to let her short temper—that roared up inside her—get her. Instead of making a fool out of herself, she leaned back and closed her eyes in deep thoughts.

How could she proof it?

Usually, she couldn't be touched by normal people but because these warriors in front of her weren't normal, that possibility couldn't be used. Ordinary weapons could slice right through her. Although she didn't know if these people put some energy into their weapons, too. Because if they did and she allowed them to cut her... Than she would allow them to make sushi out of her.

Since her brain was eliminating one way to proof her statement after the other, she decided to be blunt and take the risk of exposing some knowledge that actually should be left untouched by strangers.

"As you hopefully now, a lot of energy is hold within your bodies." The girl on the right stiffened for some unknown reason. "Chakra," she filled in and Rukia raised an eyebrow. "Bless you?" she stated unsure and titled her head to one side. Irritated, the Hokage stared at Rukia. "You don't know what Chakra is?" "Obviously not."

The guy on the left armchair turned to the blonde woman in the middle. "I think she speaks the truth." Tsunade frowned. "And why is that?" she questioned and Rukia knew that the woman didn't trust her. But that would come. It had to come because otherwise, she was stuck in here forever and that was not something she wished to become true. Trapped inside the strangest village she had ever come across wasn't something she'd like to try out.

The guy shifted a bit in his armchair before he answered. "Because she doesn't have Chakra." The girl straightened up and stared at Rukia. The shinigami could sense that, even if she couldn't see the girl's eyes because of the mask. Tsunade turned her eyes to Rukia, too, and watched her in silence. Thinking something through. Something which she wouldn't have thought of if the two warriors weren't here.

She felt slight gratitude and in her head, Sode no Shirayuki's presence felt relieved.

"I see." The blonde woman suddenly stood up and looked down on Rukia like she would probably do on a naughty child. "And are there more shinigami? Or are you the only one? Maybe the last?" Rukia felt sick. What could she tell them? She couldn't risk giving more informations out without the allowance to tell. With a nonchalant expression in her eyes, Rukia gazed up and nodded slowly. "Yes, there are others."

There would be no mention of Soul Society, the Rukongai or Seireitei.

But unfortunately, the Hokage of Konoha gakure had more questions than one. "And what is your task in the.. human world?" _Are they even humans?_, Rukia asked herself but didn't speak out loud—there was time for fights later. "We're guiding souls to the other worlds who won't cross the lines between on their own. Lost souls who remain in this world—sad and desperate—become the monsters you couldn't destroy. We call them 'Hollows'. They live off souls with high energy." After a break in which she was discussing the point of telling them about their kind of energy, she continued, having decided to tell them since the name as such wasn't really something secret, "This energy is called reiatsu. But whatever is going to happen—you can't kill it."

Heavy silence followed after Rukia's explanation and for a few seconds, Rukia feared that she told them too much. But her worries didn't turn out to be true. Tsunade walked to the window and watched some black birds flying by. She was thinking things through, Rukia could literally hear the cogwheels rattle.

"Would you please explain why that is?" the girl asked and Rukia moved her gaze from the Hokage to the other female, a bit surprised that the girl had asked and not the Hokage herself. Was the girl—and the boy, too—actually high-ranked and not only warriors? Were they something like captains?

"Because you don't have reiatsu inherited. The energy you call "chakra" is only basically the same. And because of the same basic elements you can touch them—touch me—at all. If you had reiatsu, too, the hollow wouldn't have changed when you broke his mask."

_Bringing up the memory of the girl's failure, wasn't the best idea_, Rukia thought and hesitated before answering. The girl seemed to stiffen, not a good sign.

"And what was that thing going to change into?" asked the guy and Rukia didn't answer at once. The existence and kind of the Arrancar was a delicate theme and maybe something that they couldn't handle. On the other hand it would be good if they already knew what would happen when they tried to destroy a hollow again...

A nervous look appeared in Rukia's eyes. "It would have changed into an Arrancar. The Arrancar may look faintly like a human but they aren't. They're far more powerful than a hollow could ever be." That answer was the best she could give.

Another wave of silence followed after Rukia stopped speaking and she watched the cool, grey handcuffs around her wrists. They seemed to glow slightly.

The black haired shinigami really hoped that she could find a way out of this captivity. Soon. 

_**T**he Woods (again.)_

"Stop bitching, Ichigo!"

Renji had enough. The strawberry blonde headed substitute shinigami was bragging and fighting with Matsumoto whether Rukia was "his girl" or not and Ichigo started to scream a few minutes ago. But screaming wasn't really the worst thing about the fighting. It was Ichigo repeating his so-called "arguments" over and over and increasing his screaming every time.

"Stop it yourself, tattoo ass!"

Renji stopped dead in his tracks immediately. Ichigo... was crossing a line right now. Renji's blood started to boil. "What did you just say, you stupid wannabe shinigami?" Great. Now he started the shouting, too. In front of his captain. He was _so_ screwed.

A sudden chill breeze made the three squabblers shiver and they instinctively knew that a certain someone was probably going to rip them apart. Or freeze them to ice blocks. "SHUT UP!" Hitsugaya looked like he wanted to beat his lieutenant, Ichigo and Renji into a bloody pulp before freezing them up. "You... three... Stop it right now. Matsumoto, you're forbidden to start a fight again this mission and to speak with Kurosaki. Understood? And you Abarai-fukutaichou, control yourself. You're a lieutenant and hopefully not on the same level as the hot-headed moron to your left!"

Ichigo's temper spiked up at once but he was silenced by the cold stare of Hitsugaya. The prodigy captain was obviously annoyed to the end of nowhere and maybe.. just maybe it actually was better to.. calm down a little.

However, Hitsugaya's mood didn't stop his lieutenant from sniffing and poking against his shoulder. "But.. Taichou! That's no fair... I just tried–"

"_Matsumoto._"  
"Yes, taichou..."

Pouting, the busty lieutenant jumped at Orihime, crying into her shoulder that Hitsugaya-taichou was a **big** meanie.

"Someone's coming."

Byakuya had ignored the whole fighting and shouting scene and stared between the trunks, his hand on the hilt of his zanpakuto, Senbonzakura. His aura was flaring, filled of cold deliberation and it was clear that he was ready to fight if he needed to. His grey eyes were observing every little movement in the shadows.

Suddenly, the others felt the something approaching, too. "Are you sure it's a human?" questioned Ichigo and stared sceptically into the same direction as Byakuya. "Stop it, Kurosaki, Kuchiki-taichou is right. It's a human," the white haired captain told the strawberry blonde and they waited in silence after the harsh words, analyzing the kind of sharp, spiking energy which was getting closer and closer.

Then, four persons broke through the twilight of the forest, exposing themselves to the dim light the group was standing in. The view of the four humans surprised them all.

"Who are you?" a black haired guy asked. He seemed to be the leader of the group, not tall or mascular looking but yet giving off a strong and definitely dangerous atmosphere. There was something dark, strange about his coal eyes and jet-black hair that made the shinigami feel uneasy. He was younger than everyone of their group, though he of course looked older than Hitsugaya.

Byakuya narrowed his eyes, as did the other captain. The white haired prodigy took a grip of Hyourinmaru's hilt, ready to draw his sword at any moment, while fixing the unknown humans. "That is of no interest to you," Byakuya answered coldly and a snarl could be heard from Renji when the black haired guy switched into a position that resembled one which was used in martial arts. He disrespected his captain and if Renji was allowed to fight, the brat would pay for that.

"I demand your name. Which village are you from? Tell me." He didn't comment or seemed to care about Renji's snarl. While the six exchanged stern looks, he took a step forward. "I wonder what the little boy's talking about," said Matsumoto and tipped against her chin with a thoughtful expression plastered on her face.

The leader made a sign with his fingers, on which his three team members stiffened and switched into fighting mode, too.

Byakuya actually wanted to say something but was interrupted by Ichigo. "You damn brat! Move it, we have to save someone for God's sake!" He draw Zangetsu and pointed the tip of the blade at the enemies. "We have to hurry and you're getting in the way." 

_**T**he Anbu-Apartment_

"So... Because of that–"

A hollow. It was here.

"Is that the creature?" Tsunade asked sharply as she stared out of the window. The girl-warrior sprinted to the window, standing side-by-side to her superior and answered, breathless, "Yes, it is, Hokage-sama..."

Rukia stood up, her black robes rustling faintly. "Take the handcuffs off." The guy-warrior stood up, too. "We still don't know your intentions. You could slay us, betray us, rip us apart..." "You don't understand this! You don't stand a chance against it! You can't kill it because you'll make it worse! Much worse! I wont run away or attack, I swear!" Neither of the three moved.

"Take them off!" They still didn't move. "I beg you! Take them off!" The Hokage turned slowly around. "Now!" Before Rukia really noticed it, the Hokage grabbed her wrists and removed the handcuffs, a serious look in her hazel eyes.

Rukia enjoyed the feeling of freedom at her hands, stretching her arms out to both sides. "Thank you, Hokage-sama." The shinigami ran to the window, passed the girl-warrior, opened the window and jumped out of it, landing in the air and looking down on the hollow.

The husky voice of the cruel creature reached her at once. "Shinigami," it growled and raised the eyes in the dark holes of his white bone mask. His green body, covered in transparent, slimy looking scales was lean and long with four short legs. It reminded slightly of a Chinese dragon except of the head—the typical white mask could also be the face of an Oni, a Japanese demon that was born of hatred and sins.

Disgusted, Rukia concentrated her reiatsu, feeling Sode no Shirayuki in her mind, cool and relaxing. "What a tasty snack you'll be, shinigami," the Hollow moaned and moved his head upwards to face his _snack_, "I'll be much stronger after I've eaten you..."

Purple light shone through the long, sharp teeth of the Hollow and he flung his mouth open. The crack that accompanied the movement made the black haired girl shiver and she pointed her sword at the Hollow. "We'll see who will loose this!" She took a fast breath in. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"

Some snowflakes whirled around her arms, splinters of ice flew from the cold blade and the long white ribbon danced through the air. Rukia smiled. And the Hollow shot a purple energy ball at her.

"Move, Shinigami!" screamed the girl-warrior in a hoarse voice but Rukia didn't move at all. She just stood there, still pointing her blade at the Hollow, waiting. Feeling.

The purple energy ball came nearer and nearer and then—when it was nearly touching, hurting, destroying her—she cut it into nothingness, with a single flick of her sword. "My luck that you're weak. Your bad luck that I am not." Sode no Shirayuki glowed expectantly, vibrating in excited anticipation and Rukia dashed forward, sailing through the air.

"Sode no Shirayuki!" The floor under the Hollow glowed white and made him jump into the air, while Rukia rearranged her sword, gripped the hilt harder, and the first signs of ice appeared on the ground. "First Dance: White Moon!" A pillar of ice shot towards the sky, freezing the air, one or two birds but most importantly, the Hollow.

Rukia landed softly, without a sound, and watched the skyscraper of ice which embraced the dragon-like Hollow in the middle. After one blink of her violet eyes, the pillar began to crack and finally shattered. The falling ice dissolved into soft ice dust before it could crash into anything.

When she heard steps behind her and felt _chakra,_ the shinigami turned around.

"That was impressive." Tsunade seemed to be honest and Rukia smiled a little. "Thank you..." She would actually like to deny the praise because she was not worth it. If she thought of Ichigo or Nii-sama or Renji... She really wasn't worth the praise but she hadn't denied it because she feared that the Hokage would feel insulted.

The blonde woman pulled Rukia's attention back to her when she started speaking again. "Is there a possibility for you to stay here for a while? To teach us some more about the creatures you call 'Hollow'? And.. why they appeared in the first place."

Rukia settled her gaze on the ground. Was there a possibility that allowed her to do that? And if there was one, wanted she to stay, to help them? To spent some more time in this village with these strange people?

Her mind wandered off and pushed by something that could only be titled as her good manners, she nodded. "I could do that. Though I don't know if there will be some of my... friends to 'pick me up'. And if there's work, I have to go, too."

The Hokage smiled. "Then this young lady is going to be your host!" The girl-warrior stepped forward, bowing slightly. Than she took of her mask, revealing a girlish face with soft, pale skin and bright green eyes and sakura coloured hair that was tied back into a neat bun. "My name is Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you," the girl said and smiled, though it was a bit shaky.

Rukia bowed herself and smiled back. Than... her stomach growled. A blush appeared on her cheeks. "If.. you don't mind, Haruno-san. Could we eat something? As you could hear, I'm starved."

The guy took of his mask, too, and Rukia noticed that his skin was nearly a flawless white. His eyes were so black that they seemed like holes and his hair was short and jet-black. "So.. Even death gods have to eat. Very interesting." Rukia watched him, her blush fading. This guy was a creep! She could sense that.

"So tell me, Kuchiki-san. Are you rotting, too, like a normal corpse?"

What. The. Hell? 

**To be continued...**

A/N:

Hello, you guys outta there! :D

I am really sorry that it took me so long to update, again... But as you hopefully know, people/"writers" at do have a real life and mine was really busy. (Still is but I managed to write. :)

I am also very sorry for not doing enough "Thank yoooouuu" for the feedback! :(( I'm a bad girl, I know.. But I'm doing it now! To all of you reviewers, thank you so much! :D I liked reading what you wrote here and I hope you enjoyed the plot I put into this chapter, too. :D

Of course I need to thank all the alter-people, too! And the favorite-people. Thank you for liking/reading my story, I was happy to receive a mail with the content of "User [Name insert here] has added your story to his/her alert-list."!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or Bleach (Masashi Kishimoto & Tite Kubo do!) and I don't earn money with this story! (Like I said before.. Who would pay for this? :P)

_G_reetings **3**

Kissufication


	4. Chapter 4

**Wishing you well** – Chapter 4: Getting started (Bonding and Fighting)

_**T**__he Woods  
_

"Damn it, Kurosaki, get a grip of yourself!" Hitsugaya stepped forward and pulled Ichigo behind him, using the material of the hot-headed substitute shinigami's shihakushō as a grip. As a response, he got a snarl. "You can't expect me to just wait until this guy has satisfied his need for attention!" The white-haired captain narrowed his eyes. "Stop it. I said it before—get a grip of your temper! Kuchiki-taichou or me will take care of this."

Byakuya draw his zanpakutō slowly. "I am Kuchiki Byakuya, captain of the 6th division, part of the Gotei 13. You, human, will let us pass." Ichigo sweat dropped as he heard Byakuya's speech—was this man kidding him? He had said something like that a few minutes ago!

"You look strange, you feel strange. Two reasons more than I need to fight you down." The leader straightened up. "I am Uchiha Sasuke. If you don't want to be confronted with the most powerful Kekkei Genkai than you should flee to the north and never come back."

An irritated look was exchanged by the shinigami. Uchiha Sasuke? _Kekkei Genkai_? North? They were following the fainting trail of Rukia's reiatsu! As if they knew about something as north or south in this world.

Hitsugaya was the third one who drew his sword and the two fukutaichou followed the example. "You won't understand us," Hitsugaya said coldly, "So we have to fight you." The air around the captain grow colder. "Reign over the frosted heavens... _Hyourinmaru!_"

The long, ice-based zanpakutō made the air cool down, draw the warmth literally out of it. Byakuya didn't wait any longer. "Shatter. Senbonzakura." Small cherry blossoms whirled through the air, underlining the graceful appearance of the Kuchiki's zanpakutō.

"Roar! Haineko!" In front of Matsumoto, the blade of her zanpakutō disappeared and was replaced with grey smoke, swirling around, trembling and floating with the movement of the busty woman's hand. "Don't you mess with us, kids. You'll get hurt," Matsumoto hummed and threw a look at Renji who stroke over the blade of his sword. "Howl, Zabimaru!" The red glow seemed to shape the sword new and Zabimaru in his shikai form appeared, still looking like freshly forged.

Uchiha Sasuke smirked, coal eyes filled with madness or just being overloaded with self-confidence. "I will enjoy killing you.. _Sharingan!" _When the eyes of the Uchiha turned into a bloody red and his hands formed signs after which fire spilled from his lips, the shinigami stared at their enemies in shock. The tall, orange-haired man got suddenly black marks over the right half of his body. The marks turned the skin grey and his right eye became black, leaving only the iris as a strange yellow-coloured thing behind. The pale guy with white hair drew a sword himself, long and more than a hand wide and nothing like the zanpakutōs the shinigami wielded. The red-haired girl took a step back but hold a scalpel in front of her nonetheless, dark red eyes behind black framed glasses moving from left to right, analysing their every breath.

Ichigo sent the enemies a smirk while he cut through the fireballs, deciding that the Sasuke-guy just wanted to test if he could impress them with fire. "The way you pose," Ichigo started and allowed his sword to sink a little. "Tells us that you underestimate us." His smirk grew into a snicker, making Renji move next to him, snickering, too.

Zabimaru vibrated and gave off an atmosphere that seemed to scream: "Start fighting you idiot! We wanna see some blood!" and Ichigo felt Zangetsu's impatience inside him—the old man never avoided a battle.

Taking one foot back, supporting his position with the front leg, Ichigo started to growl. "I hope you're ready! _Getsuga Tenshō_!" The light blue energy crescent dashed from Ichigo's blade through the air and the four enemies parted, every one jumping in another direction, only the Uchiha sprinting forward. His hands were moving so fast that neither of the shinigami could see what he was exactly doing and the moment he finished, fire spilled from his lips again but this time formed a huge fireball, twice as big as a normal man.

Sasuke didn't say anything but the fire was released from his lips and rolled its way up to his goal—Ichigo. The strawberry-head jumped and landed in the air, kneeling, while he looked down at the strangest enemy he had ever fought.

"You're standing in the air", the strangest enemy ever growled, somehow disappointed, and Ichigo leaned forward. "Huh? I can't hear you.. You're freakin' dumb, chicken ass!" And Ichigo let himself fall down, releasing another two _Getsuga Tenshō_ at the Uchiha-guy's head and when the Uchiha ducked out of sight, Ichigo stepped him with his sword.

Only that Sasuke was suddenly a part of a trunk.

"What the hell?" Ichigo shouted angrily and whirled around, blocking the chicken ass' strike only with his forearm. He ignored the pain, there wasn't enough time for anything else. Zangetsu cut through the air and cold sweat dripped from Ichigo's forehead. He had _never_ longed to wield Zangetsu faster.

He sighed in relieve when his zanpakutō did hit the Uchiha's side, blood spilling over the blade. He didn't manage to hit the side of the stomach, cut through and damage organs, but he did hit the rib-cage and hopefully cracked a little more than three ribs and broke two other.

Sasuke moved back, bringing a space of about five feet between them. "See?" Ichigo grinned and was in his mind proud of his pain-management. "You underestimated me." But the Uchiha didn't smirk back. Instead he turned around, no longer facing Ichigo... but Orihime.

"You may be strong," he stated. "But she certainly isn't." The fearful eyes of Orihime made Ichigo stop dead in his tracks but Zangetsu reminded him harshly that Orihime was everything else but defenceless. She proved that at least a dozen times. "Your shield!" Ichigo shouted but didn't dare to attack Sasuke because there was only two feet between the Uchiha and Orihime but more than the double between the Uchiha and Ichigo.

Fortunately Orihime had heard Ichigo's shouting and raised her hands to her hair-pins in time with Sasuke raising his katana. Orihime's voice was shaking, when she summoned her shield. "Baigon, Hinagiku, Lily.. _Santen Kesshun_! I reject!"

Three orange lights flew in front of their owner, forming a triangle and than letting appear a thick, orange barrier in the triangle, parting Sasuke and Orihime from one another. Sasuke let his sword crash against the barrier nonetheless but no one but Orihime could see that the sword didn't even touch the shield. He tricked the attack. But why? She raised his eyes to his. And collapsed.

"_Mangekyo Sharingan._"

The battle wasn't over. It had just started.

_**K**onoha, The Main Street_

Sakura's PoV

"Uhm... Of course not!"

The shinigami's cheeks turned into a kind of adorable shade of red. But even if she was really sweet looking... "Sai! You idiot!" I punched him in the face, hard, and he tumbled back, holding his cheek in pain. "What did I do?" I sighed. "You insulted her! Get a grip of your non-existent tact, Sai!"

He frowned and she observed him closely, without Sai noticing—or at least him ignoring it. "I don't know what you're talking about," he admitted and I shrugged. Tsunade went back to her Tower after she introduced me and I felt a little bit nervous about the fact that a shinigami—a death god—would live for some time in my apartment.

I shooed the bad thoughts away and focused on the shini–, uhm... _Rukia_ again. "So, you're starved, right?" Her violet eyes stared into mine. I shivered. "Yes. But normally, I can't touch things or people. I just glide through. Only if I let my reiatsu collide with the thing, I'm able to touch it." Okay... This would get complicated, I could feel that.

"Well... I don't know what would be best to offer you but why don't we just try ramen? You know ramen, do you?" A small smile appeared on her lips and that made her friendlier and me feeling better. "Yeah, I know. I'd like to try that, Haruno-san."

Sai didn't look like he wanted to add something and so I started walking. "Then let's go."

The main road was—as usually—crowded with people, most of them civilians, and I actually was surprised that none of them did really look at the black-haired girl who was right beside me, Sai directly behind us, kind of imitating a shadow.

Under the ninja of my age, I wasn't a tall one. There were a lot of girls and guys who were taller than me but this girl was just so small! She barely reached my chest and the longer I stared at her, the more I found her really adorable. When we crossed the street and went into a small alley, I watched her observing her surroundings, probably memorizing the way.

She most likely caught my staring and looked with her violet orbs in mine. "Is there anything on my face?" she asked and I nearly stopped walking—why did I met people all the time who couldn't get a more normal meaning of staring? "No, there isn't. I was just wondering if you think our village is strange," I lied but while I did so I did catch interest in that question.

Rukia threw a look over her shoulder, looking if Sai was still there. When she found him, half day dreaming while following us, she turned her gaze back to me.

"I do like your city. Although I haven't really seen much. But I like the atmosphere so far." Rukia didn't smile but she seemed like she analysed her surroundings, so I didn't complain mentally about her seemingly joyless attitude. After all, that could just be nothing more than what I just thought—a simple attitude to hide her excitement or whatever she was feeling at the moment.

With a lot of mental power, I pushed my foot forward, continue walking. The way Rukia's energy felt, cool, chilly even, and the way she effectively shut her feelings off from her face, reminded me of Sasuke. Though Rukia was sometimes more than ice.

We turned around a corner and the crowd lighted up, revealing more shops at each side of the street. I lifted my arm up and pointed towards an orange awning which said "Ichiraku". Although Naruto could be there and startle Rukia with his out-going personality, I decided it was only fair to present my so-called guest the best ramen of Konoha.

"Here we go," I muttered and sighed quietly because my voice has certainly been too low to be heard properly. Rukia, however, surprised me by hearing my words nonetheless. She nodded and headed to the orange entrance. Sai and I followed and after brushing the partition of the ramen shop aside, I saw Naruto staring at Rukia's strange outfit.

The black-haired shinigami turned to me, the stern look in her eyes surprising me—again. "Can he see me?" she asked and brushed a lost strand of black hair from her cheek. She didn't seem to be too startled with Naruto's wide blue eyes looking her up and down and thinking who-knows-what.

Naruto wasn't pleased with Rukia's question. I could see that by the way he frowned and half pouted, before letting a load "Huh?" escape from his mouth, without thinking. "Why shouldn't I see you?" Unfortunately, his shouting got Ichiraku and his daughter Ayame to return from the kitchen and look after their favourite customer.

The older man looked pretty irritated. "What's your problem, Naruto-kun? Who shouldn't you see?" The moment Naruto turned to his favourite ramen-cook and pointed at Rukia, her face went into an amused mask. She smirked at the blonde, almost dirtily as I noticed. "Her! Stupid, eh?" He didn't have an amount of chakra which was above the average. So that made it practically impossible to see her which she certainly knew. Mentally, I wondered if Rukia was actually amused by Naruto's dumbness.

And I was—or maybe both were—right. "There's only Sakura-chan and Sai-kun. Maybe you are just too hungry—some people get hallucinations from that."

Before Naruto could start to explain that he actually _heard_ the purportedly non-existent girl talk to me, I interrupted his attempt by actually shouting my order at Ichiraku. "I'd like to have three miso ramen, please. To take away."

Ayame smiled friendly while her father just shrugged and was being dragged back to the kitchen, out of Naruto's and my sight. Immediately, I tackled him lightly, my voice dropping to a minimum and I hissed at Naruto, "I'll explain later! We're going to my place." He stared at me like I just told him we'd eat in another dimension were ramen were living people. "But... Sakura-chan! _My_ ramen!"

His stupidness forced an annoyed sigh out of me and said sigh was followed by an angry glare. "Take them with you, you moron!" Sometimes, I wondered if he even thought at all.

The Uzumaki pouted over my words while I took my ordered ramen from the counter, thanking Ayame and waving at her, than approaching the exit. Before leaving the shop, I glanced at Naruto for the last time. He was impatiently waiting for his ramen. Usually he was just hungy but now, he was hungry and curious at the same time. Must be hard to handle for him.

just when I stood on the street, in front of the shop, I noticed too late that two _very_ important things were missing. Or more precisely... _went _missing. Without me noticing. Cursing, I threw a quick look in both directions—the street up and down—before I gave up. The first thing missing was Sai and that made me surprisingly angry. He could at least say it if he had enough of me. (Or Rukia. Or my mission.)

The second thing was Rukia which was much worse than Sai and really got me worried. I tried to stop myself from imagining what Tsunade would do to me if I did loose the shinigami.

I nervously closed my eyes and scanned the surrounding area for the faintest sign of Rukia's energy. I was surprised once more when I discovered Sai's chakra and Rukia's energy mingled together, leaving a well noticeable trace behind as if they disappeared side by side. Which was most likely the case.

Without further hesitating, I followed the trace and jumped one or two minutes later from roof to roof, balancing the box with ramen in my right hand. After fifteen up-and-downs, I landed in front of the apartment building where I lived. Sai. Stupid bastard. Taking my guest to the place where I lived before me.

I unlocked and pushed the main entrance door open. The door hadn't half closed behind me, when I already dashed the stairs up to the third floor. The white door of my apartment had the numbers "3-9" on it and before the key had even touched the lock, the energy inside my apartment made me snort.

The question was, did Sai really think he could escape a second punch in the face today or was he mentally already expecting it?

But how Sai actually managed to get inside, did left me wondering—I was sure that I closed every window. … If he broke something, the hospital wouldn't get rid of him in ten years, I swore. But anyway... I would make him tell the truth. God, I would even make him beg for forgiveness and–  
Okay, Sakura... Get a grip of yourself, your temper's getting the best of you. Again.

Finally, I pushed the door open and the wood collided slightly with the wall behind it. The floor in front of me was dark and untouched, like I left it about two days ago. (Was is actually only two days ago that I searched for the monster? It seemed more like twenty minutes.) Although the apartment wasn't that big and I could see the open doors to every room from my place at the door, I couldn't believe that nobody was here. Physically at least.

I checked every room twice but found nothing.

Standing in my small living room, I gasped when I felt the energy, which I connected with Rukia, coming closer. My eyes switched to my balcony and the moment I laid my eyes on it, Rukia appeared, jumping over the railing, hovering only inches above the stone floor for a few seconds, before landing gracefully and slightly smirking.

My feet started automatically to walk and I let Rukia in. A wave of air from outside washed over me and the shinigami entered my apartment. My heartbeat slowed down when I closed the door to the balcony behind her—I actually thought it would be worse to have a death god inside my apartment.

"Why didn't you wait? And more importantly... When did you decide to disappear?" Rukia seemed to have forgotten the bad start we had, the handcuffing and the maybe a little to rough tone of my voice because she smiled at me and opened her mouth to explain. "Sai-kun said, it was okay to go ahead and that you would take more than a while to flirt with 'Naruto' and that he read in a book that–" "Okay, I get it. So... You still hungry?"

Getting the hint, Rukia passed me a funny look which I didn't really understand, than frowned, before nodding. With a wave to the low table where I usually ate, I made my way to the kitchen. Arriving there I unpacked the ramen which I put on the counter before I started searching the room. Sai's ramen were shoved aside and I carried the other two into the living room.

Rukia's eyes were immediately fixed on the still steaming noodles and I sat down next to her. "Well... Enjoy your meal." She smiled again, said "Thank you. You, too." and started eating. It didn't happen often that I could eat in silence and when, it was always an awkward one. But eating with Rukia, seeing her simply enjoying her ramen made me feel comfortable.

Too bad that this shouldn't last any longer.

"Sakura!" Heavy knocking. I ran to the door, opening it as fast as I could. In front of it was an older woman with short, black hair, looking nervous. "What... Shizune? What's wrong?" My thoughts went rambling—terrorism, sudden death, disease, war.

Rukia appeared behind me, the black material of her clothes nearly touching my as she soaked the situation in. "There are people... fighting... three or four hours from here, in the woods. Where you were, hunting the hollow... And Sasuke is fighting against them." My mouth started to open and close within five seconds or so. "S-Sasuke? But his chakra has been..."

Shizune shook her head, denied my weak attempt to don't loose my hope of a not fighting Sasuke. A peaceful Sasuke. "We needed him for protecting Konoha from afar, he was willing to do it.. But now those people... with strange chakra and wielding swords who change their appearance... We thought that... Welll... Tsunade-sama... thought that..." Shizune stumbled upon her own words and I couldn't believe my ears.

"Sakura." The shinigami to my left laid a hand on my shoulder, looking so much older than I ever could have felt. "I beg your company when we're going to end this fight between shinobi and shinigami." Her calmness wrapped me up and I dumbly nodded. "Of course."

She called me Sakura, not Haruno-san. I didn't mind.

Shizune made a step to the right, revealing Sai. "I am sorry for disappearing earlier, Sakura." He smiled genuinely and I didn't resist the urge to smile back. "We can fly with a bird of mine, so it will take us only two hours. Let's hope we'll get back in one piece." Rukia's violet eyes locked with Sai's.

Maybe they came to a silent understanding while he escorted her to my apartment.

A sweet smile slipped over my lips. "We will get back, Sai. Don't worry. You owe me 800 ryos." He raised an eyebrow. Sceptically, he gave me a look that said 'How did you manage to pay that much for ramen?' "Don't worry... You'll soon know, why!"

Together with Sai, Shizune and Rukia, I ran the stairs down and when we landed by the huge northern gate, Tsunade looked already too impatient to be still friendly with us. "Here you are... finally. Kuchiki-san, your friends are beating a squad of our people up pretty badly." Rukia turned slightly pale. "They are searching for me.. They will stop when they see me or I will make them, I promise." Tsunade smirked. "Try your best.. Let's see if you're able to stop... Well... you'll see."

Tsunade was talking about Sasuke and I was getting more and more nervous. "Can we go now?" I sounded like a five-year-old on his first day at the kindergarten. Sai smiled. His eyes lingered on me before returning to the Hokage. My cheeks turned red. Damn it. Sometimes, I just didn't get him at all.

While my shishou explained to Rukia in short sentences that we shinobi could use "Jutsus" (as in "Genjutsu", "Ninjutsu" and "Taijutsu"), I listened carefully, adding something once in a while. Sai interrupted after a few minutes. "I'm ready." When we turned around, a large hawk stood in front of us, outlined in black and coloured white. We climbed on, Tsunade watched stoically.

"Don't worry, Sakura. We'll fly as past as possible." Sai patted the back of his hawk, the ground of Konoha started to disappear under us, being replaced with green trees. "I will try to make it–" "OI! I hope you were just about to say, 'I will try to make it fast although we need to get Naruto first'...!" Jumping, I hit Naruto across the head, Rukia smirking.

"What, Sakura-chan? It's time to rescue Sasuke's ass again...!" He grinned widely at Rukia. "Not meaning to offend you, Rukia-chan! Your guys can be really cool, too, hehe!" "Non taken... You better bet they are."

**To be continued...**

A/N: Good evening, people!

This chapter is extra long, I hope you know why. :) If there are spelling or grammar mistakes, don't hesitate to throw them at me! Or if you think 'Why the f*ck can't [insert thing here] happen?', than please suggest it per review or message.

If you care about pairings at all or some special things like.. Dunno... HitsuSaku or SasuRukia or ByaRuki and SasuSaku... **Say it somehow!** (I can make pairings up by myself, don't think I won't update or become desperate without you... :D)

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto and Bleach and don't earn money with this sorry.

Greets, **Kissufication** 3


	5. Chapter 5

**Wishing you well** – Chapter 5: Falling, Fighting and new Acquaintances 

_**T**__he Air__  
_

**Rukia PoV**

The hawk was flying pleasantly; the air was chilly enough to cool down her heated mind. Rukia felt peace and relaxation creeping through her body—against her will but it was there. In front of her sat Sai, his almost white skin looking soft and interesting to her. It was the palest skin she had ever seen. And Sai's character was, too, unique in his own way.

When he took her to Sakura's apartment building, they didn't talk. It was more like they created a noiseless language for themselves without thinking about it at all.

"So, Sakura-chan, Rukia-chan... Sai... You owe me an explanation! What's exactly going on?" The black-haired girl moved her eyes from Sai's back to the blonde behind her and turned to him as well because she could look at him better that way. "What exactly are you referring to?" Rukia heard herself asking and sounded a little too formal for her liking.

"For example... Why Ichiraku couldn't see you! I mean, I made a complete fool out of myself!" Sai looked over his shoulder, smirking. "The question is, when do you manage to _no__t make_ a fool out of yourself?" Naruto growled while Sakura hit Sai's shoulder and the blonde's arm. "Behave, kids," she teased and looked at the shinigami who was still her guest—and her responsibility—expectantly.

The lips of the guest curled into a smile. "Maybe I'll explain it to you, Naruto-kun." The Uzumaki nodded and corrected Rukia by saying, "Just Naruto is fine." That made Rukia smile even wider. "It's that way... I am dead." She wanted to say more but Naruto interrupted her, irritated. "Say _what_? You look pretty fine and healthy to me!"

Sakura giggled and Sai snickered silently. They looked at another as if they shared a private joke. "It's always like that, Rukia... Be prepared your explanation might be exhausting," Sakura joked and moved next to Sai, pointing ahead of them and asking something that didn't reach Rukia's ears.

The shinigami titled her head and thought of a good way to explain what she had just said. "Well... Naruto. What do you think happens when you die?" The blonde ninja gaped like a fish. "Uuuuh..." "Yes?" "Uhm..." "Yes?" "..." "...?" "Dunno." The shinigami managed to hide an irritated look from her eyes but didn't stop a huff from escaping. "Okay. So, when you die, your soul goes to a place different from earth. You can become a shinigami—a soul reaper—if you could transport more than the average amount of the energy of your living body with you into the afterlife. If you have that amount of energy, you can become a shinigami by learning from others. The energy is called 'reiatsu'. It's quite similar to 'chakra'."

Naruto stared at Rukia with an almost understanding look on his face. "Okay… You are saying that you are a death god." The shinigami nodded. "And what exactly is your job?" The violet eyes became a little bit glittery with happy thoughts of the satisfaction that went along with the tasks of a shinigami.

"We're doing everything to protect the souls. And we have to guide souls who can't cross the line to the afterlife by themselves." Naruto grinned like crazy and tapped with his index finger against his chin. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was lost in his thoughts for a moment, before opening his bright blue eyes again and looking at Rukia, still grinning.

A quizzically look crossed Rukia's eyes—again—and she hesitated to react to Naruto because it was hard for her to read something out of his grin. "You guys are pretty amazing!" the Kyuubi container finally shouted and reached out to pat the frail shoulder of the raven-haired girl.

"Oh. Thank you..." That was definitely a first. No one had complemented her for just being a shinigami. A light blush appeared on her cheeks. "No need to blush, Rukia-chan, it's the truth. Believe it!" Rukia giggled a little, before putting his hand off her shoulder. This guy reminded her of Kaien. And that was not good. She fought another blush and moved her eyes from the friendly face to the earth underneath them.

"The view sure is impressive," the shinigami stated and let her eyes glide some more over the trees and a greater lake, some miles away. "That's right. Maybe I or Sakura-chan can take you to Suna. You have to see the desert there. Though it's hot and so on, the view is really amazing!" Rukia smiled extra-large. "Then I'll be looking forward to it," she answered and moved closer to the edge, throwing an intense look down into the deep green forest.

Suddenly, a hand gripped her shoulder and Sakura's nervous voice turned Rukia's attention from the trees to her friend. "Don't fall," the rosette ANBU said, concern showing in her green eyes. "I won't," Rukia answered. "And I can stand in the air, anyway."

The Haruno looked like she really forgot that fact. "Yeah.. Well… Well. But I think that—""Sakura-chan! I thought, we'd fly a few hours but after this half hour, we've already passed the crossed trees at the moon lake. A few minutes and we're there. Whyyy? I don't get that!"

Sai turned around and looked emotionless like always, a slight frown starting to form on his forehead, while an annoyed stare had settled down in his coal eyes. "That's because I've increased the chakra use. A few miles—like you said—because we need to hurry, idiot. My chakra level has gone down a little but… I can't help it. Now make yourself ready." Naruto pouted heavily when he pulled his white mask down. The mask of the Uzumaki looked like a bird, maybe a raven, with jet black outlines. Sai pulled his wolf mask down, too, but before he passed Rukia and Sakura a look to see if they did what he told them.

But after his mask was pulled down, Rukia could swear, she felt his eyes linger on her a bit longer.

"I hope, you're ready, Rukia," Sakura told the smaller girl and mirrored the action of her male teammates. With her rabbit mask over her friendly features, Sakura had doubled her atmosphere of a dangerous ninja. "I'm always ready," the Kuchiki heard herself joking and wondered where the sudden confidence came from when her heart was hammering against her rib cage like she would suffer a heart attack every minute. "Good." At least, one of the two girls seemed satisfied for the moment.

Much to Rukia's dislike, the few miles which separated her from her (probably) usual bunch of rescuers were left behind in almost no time. (Although she did ask herself more than one time: Who would be there? And more importantly… Had they already pushed themselves into tons of danger?) But while a thousand of similar questions were floating through her mind like a torrent, she always searched for the familiar waves of light blue reiatsu.

And finally, she found it. Like hot air on a summer day, strikes of the energy steamed off from a hole in the trees which seemed to be a small clearing. The relief she thought she would feel wasn't half as pleasant as she expected it to be.

"I'm going down here," Sai announced when there was only one and a half mile between her and her friends. When he turned around to take a look at the approval of everyone, Rukia surprised him by standing up. The shinigami took a hold of her zanpakuto and then said, "I'm going ahead from here." And she meant it like—_I'm going to jump down _here_ from thirteen and a half feet above the ground_. "This will be faster than walking."

Sai didn't know what to say but while thinking, he forgot to take the bird down. They just flew forward. Sakura jumped suddenly up, too, causing the whole hawk to shake in the air. "You can't! What if Sasuke… **Wait!**" Rukia had jumped forward, gliding through the air as if she was a part of it.

"Rukia!" The rosette shouted from the top of her lungs and lunged after her friend, pushing a lot of energy into her legs and pressing her arms to her sides. She really hadn't forgotten this time that Rukia could stand in the air. It was because of Sasuke. What if the Uchiha would pick her delicate kind-of-new-friend out of the air with a chirping Chidori and crush her between his disgusting snakes and strikes with his kusanagi? Not that Tsunade would punish her for that— Sakura would hate herself if she let that happen.

Because Sai hadn't stopped the hawk, they were nearer to the clearing than Rukia had previously thought and she could almost identify the people on the clearing but Sakura's heart tearing cry made her turn in the air, still sailing but now backwards, her front facing an Anbu—Sakura—who was definitely on the way to her. But how would she carry them both in the air?

The worry Rukia felt turned fast into furious panic, as she saw Sakura suddenly stop her move towards her but instead started to fall down. The black haired shinigami gaped for a mere second, before jumping after her friend. For a moment, she imagined to hear a stoic "Senbon-" but while she knew what coming after this word, she screamed "Sakura!" nonetheless.

**Sakura PoV**

I fell. I really fell.

In that moment, it felt like a dream. A humiliating one, but a dream nonetheless. I was a ninja, an ANBU and I was falling because I jumped after a god damned shinigami who could stand in the air.

The shame prickling on my cheeks was far more embarrassing than the fact that I would crash into the earth every second and didn't do anything against it. Somehow, the sky, leafs, Rukia—everything turned into a blurred mix of colours which made me sick. My stomach growled and my head hurt. I wasn't afraid, though. I knew nothing was going to happy to me since I had chakra in me and was punched by Tsunade a lot while she trained me. About eight feet straight into hard, sun burned earth couldn't be _that_ bad.

A voice said "Senbon" and I remember clearly that I only wondered at that moment why someone would speak of weapons now. "Sakura!" Rukia was shouting my name and that kicked something in me out of its frozen state. My limbs started to move, I turned, eyes closed behind my mask, gloved hands moved in front of my chest and I pulled my knees a bit to my chest.

I was ready to hit something and something I hit. Only that it wasn't really earth. No, it wasn't sun burned earth either. It was white and kind of soft, with a strangely framed black kanji for "six" in front of my face. Warmth was streaming of the thing I landed on and because these are my thoughts, I can be really honest—after the fall of about eight feet there were two things that didn't allow me to acknowledge the "thing" as a human. First thing, I was shocked from my slow—or even non-existent—reflexes that had kept me falling down this long and second, my head was extremely dizzy and my view was still blurred.

"W-w-what," I stammered like a toddler speaking the word for the first time and moved back from the white, eyes still focused on the six. I could feel I didn't stand on the white thing, more like sat on it. "God, Sakura, are you hurt?" Rukia appeared out-of-nowhere, kneeling down to me next and cupping my masked face in her hands, moving so close to me that she could peer through the holes of my mask into my half lidded eyes.

I mumbled something along the lines of "My head spins" and gripped her shoulders in return. The spinning had already faded away and I now smiled lightly at her. My mouth started to open for a question to come out of it but under me, something moved. My senses jumped on and I wanted to leap away, taking Rukia with me, but something caught my ankle.

"Who are you?"

The cool voice made me shiver instinctively and I glanced at my ankle—slim, long fingers were wrapped around it and holding me in place. My eyes followed the fingers and travelled up the arm only to find sharp, grey, hard eyes glaring at me.

I sat on a man.

"Oh…! Nii-sama!" Rukia moved her hands away from my mask and pulled at my arms to get me off the man. "Nii-sama?" My voice sounded a bit husky, almost like Rukia's but I managed to stop it from cracking. The man and Rukia didn't look much alike if related by any chance at all.

He seemed grumpy while she was friendly. He seemed mature and old while she looked young and open-minded. And their energy felt totally different on top of that.

Rukia started to pull on my arms stronger and looked down at her Nii-sama, a worried look plastered all over her face. "This is a friend of mine, she took care of me while I am at this city—Konoha—and she is really someone to trust!" Moving her worried eyes to my face and frowned harder. "Now, please… Move!" I rose and shook my feet, trying to shake the strong hand off. He let go after a few seconds and I stumbled away. Once more I was behaving like a stupid girl and not like the deathly warrior I was trained to be.

Glimpsing around a bit, I noticed two strangers sitting around under a tree. They seemed to be fairly asleep. One of them was a girl about my age with orange hair and an overly large sized breast, accompanied by a woman with strawberry blonde curls and even larger breasts if that was even possible. I was wondering if even Tsunade-sama herself had that much.

However, I thought irritated, Did I just fall ten feet down from a bird, landed on Rukia's brother and decided that he was a total prick in five minutes? Time was really a strange thing. Rukia's violet orbs were fixed on me and she placed a hand on my arm. "Are you sure, you're okay?" she wanted to know and the concern in her eyes made me smile.

Had I always been this touchy? Man…

"Yes, I'm fine, no need to worry, Rukia." I turned to her brother. "I am truly sorry, I landed on you earlier. I am a ninja from the village Konoha and part of the ANBU—a squad that is directly ordered by our Godaime Hokage Tsunade-sama. She is the leader of our village. Rukia falls under my vision and is my responsibility for the length of her stay."

The stoic features of the man told me absolutely nothing about what he was thinking. Either he was going to ignore my introduction or he was going to introduce himself. I stared at him, hard—maybe that would help his mouth move.

A few more seconds passed and Rukia's brother decided finally to say something. "My name is Byakuya Kuchiki. I am the captain of the 6th division of the Gotei 13 under Yamamoto-sama and head of the Kuchiki clan. In the name of my clan, I thank you for taking care of my sister."

This was the most formal talk that I ever had since not even my entrance into ANBU could compare with this hollow talking.

"Oi!" Naruto appeared next to me and hugged me, startling me even more than his sudden appearance already had. "You're okay. Well, I would have been really disappointed if you were actually be harmed by this little fall. Your punch once broke my spine and this little fall is _nothing_ against that, believe that!" His last sentence was addressed at Byakuya Kuchiki and the captain just stared at the raven mask. "Yeah, well, tell me, Rabbit, who's this guy?"

I was definitely impressed by the fact that Naruto had actually not used my real name.

"He's Rukia's brother, his name is–""What, he's Rukia-chan's brother? Rukia-chaaan, you never told me about him. He sure doesn't look like you. Let me guess… He's a total–" Jabbing him between two rips, Naruto finally shut his mouth and I glared daggers at him from under my mask. This idiot!

Rukia seemed to have become nervous while she glanced from Naruto to her brother and back. "Well, this is my brother Byakuya Kuchiki. He's a captain of the sixth division which is a part of the Gotei 13. Nii-sama, this is… Raven, an ANBU like… Rabbit."

I was proud of Rukia for using the right names though she nearly stumbled upon them.

Byakuya Kuchiki nodded and then fixed something behind Naruto. I turned around and saw Sai jumping from a nearby branch. His feet touched the ground noiselessly and he walked over to us, standing between me and Rukia. When he spoke in this fake-smile tone of his, I could literally see his fake expression in front of my eyes. Sure, he had improved in emotions and I could see, he liked Rukia (?) but with Byakuya Kuchiki there, this disgusting fake expression would come out again. Everyone would see that smile I hated if there hadn't been a mask.

Sai nudged me slightly and I frowned before realizing that my whole body had tensed up. "Are you two alright?" the ex-Root member asked and switched the direction of his gaze from me to Rukia and back. Rukia was the first to answer. "Yeah, it was just the shock for me." I just silently nodded.

"Hey, Byakuya, tell me—are there another ninja here?" Naruto had his arms crossed over his chest and was a bit jumpy because he had himself prepared for a fight that was already finished. "I would prefer it if you called me 'Kuchiki-taichou'," Kuchiki-taichou answered stiffly and his lips made a stoic, slim line. "There were two ninjas—Dog and Ghost—and the first one had six dogs with him."

Under my mask, I grinned happily. Kakashi and Tenzou. There wouldn't be too much to do if they were here and had already handled the situation.

"Nii-sama…" Rukia pulled the attention of everyone onto her and bit her bottom lip uncertainly. "Who… Who else is here?" She asked rather frightfully and I wondered if she was somehow afraid of her brother. Was there a reason for that? He would become an acquaintance of my fist if that thought turned out to be true.

But Byakuya Kuchiki didn't seem to be the kind of type to lose his temper or make his little sister afraid of him because of... Maybe violence or other things but of course, you could never know.

When he answered to his sister's question, he looked cool and level-headed. "The substitute Inoue and Matsumoto-fukutaichou are sitting there. While the fighting, they fell unconscious due to the attacks of two enemies. The two ninjas, Kurosaki Ichigo, Abarai-fukutaichou and Hitsugaya-taichou accompanied the two ninjas and the enemies who turned out to be just average warriors who were unable to judge the situation correctly."

Before even the excited Naruto could say something, I jumped and nearly shouted my thought in Kuchiki-taichou's face. "Was there a black haired guy under the enemies?" I exclaimed and the stony grey eyes were looking insulted by the rather loud intrude I made with my question.

"Yes, there was. He attacked two of us with a strange technique, he called 'Kekkei Genkai' and those two haven't reached a state of consciousness yet." My instinct as a medic-nin started to stir and I looked to the orange haired girl and the strawberry-blonde woman. "Are those two the victims?"

Byakuya Kuchiki followed my gaze. "Only the girl is." My feet sped over and I kneeled down, measuring the temperature of the skin and the heartbeat. The skin was over the average temperature, probably heated by the excitement and fear Sasuke's illusions had caused her. The pulse was a little bit faster, too, but aside of those symptoms, there was nothing wrong with the girl. The woman on the other hand had cuts of Karin's chakra scalpel which caused the unconsciousness. After checking the temperature and the pulse, too, I pushed some green chakra into the main injuries and stood up, turning around to the others, after I finished healing.

Rukia had looked at the girl worriedly and sent me a questioning look. "Is anything wrong with the girl? She's called Orihime Inoue. The woman is Rangiku Matsumoto, the lieutenant of the 10th division." Because I still wore the mask, I shook my head (otherwise, I would have frowned as an answer) and went back to the small group.

"The unconsciousness was caused by the Kekkei Genkai but aside from that, there's nothing wrong with her. She just needs to recover. But the woman, on the other hand, is really injured. Some cuts have damaged a few nerves which I healed. She needs to recover, too, though it's more like she needs time to heal the rest by herself."

The black haired shinigami seemed relieved and I patted her shoulder. "Well, Dog and Ghost will return soon and then I'll check the others, okay? You really don't have a reason to worry about them. They've stopped fighting after all, remember?"

I actually should have known it. My last sentence was teasing destiny. _Of course_ the trees a few feet near the two unconscious females had to explode with whirling dust and splintering wood and _of course_ a body had to fly straight in our direction. Hastily, I draped an arm around Rukia's waist and jumped to the right. Her brother, Naruto and Sai had fortunately leapt aside, too, and the body crashed into the trunks behind us, making an ugly cracking sound. Weather it was wood or bone cracking, I didn't know.

Rukia and I had a good look on the situation from where we stood and she only wasted a few seconds to look if I were alright, before she shoved my arm away and pointed at the body. "Do you know this guy?" Rukia asked and seemed feeling worry and amusement at the same time because the guy with light orange hair rose up from the destroyed trunks and scratched his head.

He looked like nothing had happened at all and then suddenly looked up into the sky where a small bird was flying. The large man observed the animal dreamily as if he imagined how it would be to fly along with him.

"That's Juugo." _That's the guy who served my first big love to betray and attack my dear village and my loved ones and whom I thought to be no longer able to fight__ but was being proved otherwise and now am left completely clueless weather all of the jerks serving my first big love are jumping around and weather my first big love could really turn around the next corner__._ A slight pain was making it difficult to think clearly.

For a moment, it seemed like Rukia had read my mind, my thoughts and my memories. She was looking at me knowingly and wanted to say something but another loud crash and more splintering wood and dust caught our attention. I spun around to see what was happening.

An orange haired guy with a tall frame and an angry look on his mature looking features was sword fighting with Sasuke. So much to the my first big love turns around the next corner. The orange head was dressed in a black cloak which was torn and dirty at the edge of the material. The colour of the cloak was the same as the colour of the blade of his sword. At the end of the handle was a thin chain which gave off clinging sounds every time the orange head changed the direction of his hits.

"Rabbit!"

Naruto was pointing at the two fighting boys and gave a curt nod with his head. Sai appeared next to Rukia and muttered, "That's your chance to get a grip of him." He of course meant Sasuke. Though I now was unsure whether I still wanted to be Sasuke's friend or not, Naruto was as determined as always. And only because of him I pushed aside all of my doubts and gave him a nod of my own.

At the same time, we jumped forward. I knew it was best for Naruto to stop Sasuke, so I turned my attention towards the other guy. They both saw us but were probably too wrapped up in their own fight to concentrate on the possibility that we could interrupt them.

"Stop it, Sasuke!" Naruto screamed and jumped in between the strokes of sharp blades, trying to land a hit in Sasukes face. The Uchiha dodged and with my arm stretched out, I let the orange head's sword collide with my arm shield. A crack told me, he just broke it. Determined to stop this fight, I pushed him away that his blade flew upwards and reached out to hit his cheek with my fist.

With his forearm, the guy shielded his face and I rushed to the right, pulling out a kunai and letting my leg swirl around at an attempt to kick his rib cage from the side. "What the fuck?" the guy howled and gripped my foot in time before it collided with its aim. His grip on my ankle was strong—and he was the second one to grip it roughly on this day. (I actually never thought I'd see the day where two relatively handsome men would grip my ankle and won't let go of it…)

Not able to guide his sword with the same fastness he had shown with it before, I saw it as my opportunity to surprise him. I raised my gloved fist into the air und crashed it into the earth like I never did before. The skin at the knuckles ripped open, I felt a sharp pain spreading up my arm but I ignored it. The earth shivered under my brutal strength and then was breaking open. Deep cracks were emerging from the point where I had hit the earth and stony, earthy plats were rising upwards. One or two trees behind us were falling, snapping at the middle, and I watched the amber eyes of the orange head widen. For a second, he lost his balance on the still shivering earth.

Using this opportunity for my best, I moved my kunai at his throat and therefore ended our little fight. I grinned satisfied. The cold metal didn't touch his skin but we both knew it was easy for me to change that. "Let go of my ankle," I muttered dangerously low and he followed my _advice_ without hesitating. Of course I would never admit it loudly but the best thing about winning a fight with threatening to kill the opponent was the fact that one could order the looser around.

"Kneel down." He did so and glared at me. I was only half a head taller than him when he had kneeled down and I cursed my height. "Lie down your sword," I ordered next and lie his sword down he did. Carefully, I picked the weapon up by its handle and placed it behind him where his hand couldn't reach it that easily. Then I moved behind the orange head and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Don't move."

Sasuke and Naruto were bickering by now. They had stopped their fight and were throwing insults at each other, followed by light punches and the threat to end the life of the other the next second. I hated the fact that tons of strangers would see a fight that wasn't and wouldn't ever be their concern. I knew what Naruto was was going to scream next.

Before saying what really made him sick, the Uzumaki was always one to warm up with every light issue he brought on. But now Sasuke had said enough to make Naruto more than just averagely angered. "You're such a jerk, Uchiha! You don't have any idea how we all suffered and you know what? You don't even care!" Sasuke's face paled with every word—a reaction I thought was already like an emotional outbreak for Sasuke. "Well, maybe you're just too stupid to understand that there's a time when you have to let go. It's not like I even want to be friends!" Naruto's cheeks turned red, I imagined his blue eyes go cloudy with fury.

"'Don't wanna be friends'? With who! You know as damn good as I that the only friends you ever had were the ones you had through Sakura and me because you yourself were to god damned pride to search for some by yourself, your lazy prick!" "It would have been better if I hadn't had them through you in the first place!" the Uchiha yelled and then they were at each other's throat again like.

I hadn't felt my eyes water. I hadn't felt my heart hurt. I hadn't known I was that deeply soaked into their fight. Or at least I hadn't felt and known until some presences were appearing behind me. "They're like always, right?" Kakashi patted my head and I removed the kunai from the orange head's neck.

"Well, Kurosaki-san, would you be so kind to tell me how my favourite girl got at your throat?" So that was Kurosaki. A grumpy look was on his face but when he wanted to answer and looked down on me, I jumped in between. I seemed to do that a lot today. "It was my fault. Well, kind of. He was fighting with Sasuke and Naruto wanted to sort things out with him, so I kept him… down."

It was my turn to redden now and I was kind of thankful for my mask. I turned to Kurosaki and bowed slightly. "I'm sorry for the rough handle. But you have good reflexes. It could have turned out rather bad for you if I had kicked your butt– your rib cage back then."

A smirk carved itself onto his lips and his eyes lit up a bit. I found him even more handsome when he smirked like that. "You didn't kick my butt, not even probably. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki." I shrugged the first sentence off. Of course he could deny it… It was the truth nonetheless. "I'm an ANBU directly serving under Tsunade-sama, Hokage of Konoha." He was the first to frown. "You nameless or what?" Ichigo wanted to know and picked his sword up. And then, the strangest thing, I have ever seen, happened. At first, the sword changed into a form that looked like a giant kitchen knife. Creepy. But the actual strangest thing ever was that his _clothes_ changed. From the dark cloak and pants, his clothes transformed into the same outfit that Orihime and Matsumoto-fukutaichou wore.

Kakashi gave me the opportunity to avoid answering Ichigo's question and pointed behind him where voices could be heard. "We decided to go with most of the shinigami to the nearby lake but somehow, Sasuke, Juugo and Kurosaki got into a fight. It would be nice if you could look over this kid they brought along. He maybe a so-called 'taichou' but he is still a child, I think. Be not so rough with your chakra on him, okay?"

Pouting I put my kunai back in its place. "When am I ever roughing my patients up?" I muttered and turned around, stomping off to stay behind with the kid-taichou. The cool shadow of the trees was perfectly fine to treat a patient and I would definitely coat him in sugary, motherly love, no matter what the kid had to say about that, so that Kakashi would see I was the sweetest, fairy like medic-nin that ever existed. I heard my ex-sensei laugh and shouting, he would take care of Naruto and Sasuke, and Ichigo laughed, too. He said something along the lines of "He won't like that, you know" but I hadn't got a clue what he was talking about.

Yes, I was being childish but… Oh, well. Who cares? I certainly didn't at the moment. 

**To be continued…**

A/N.: Hello to everyone!

I have finally managed a new chapter. Hopefully, everyone likes it as much as I do! I know there might be a few grammar mistakes in it but well… If you find some, feel free to tell me about them!  
Thank you so, so, so much for the reviews! I appreciated every opinion and am going to put everything together in my head. Of course you'll **see** what pairing was decided, I'm not going to tell you here. ;D Hehe.. Yes, I'm a big meanie! 3

You know, I was kinda surprised by all the answers. :D But, woohoo, whatever. ;D Keep guessing guys, everything's still a big blur. (I love **blur – song 2**. Listen to it, guys!)

This chapter is sooo damn long, I think and I actually could have still made it longer. But huh, wait for next time to find Sakura and kid-taichou be united! (;

xoxo, Kissufication

p.s.: I don't own Bleach/Naruto. Tite Kubo/Masashi Kishimoto do. The plot is mine!  
This chapter is dedicated to **MnC21** for all of her impressing words. I liked them! 3 Thanks.


	6. Chapter 6

**Wishing you well** – Chapter 6: Say _what_? Who is a **child**? 

_**U**__nder the Trees__  
_

**Sakura PoV**

The light that seemed to radiate from the green leafs gave the wood a magical touch. I hadn't been in this wood since... some years ago, so I was kind of surprised by the beautifulness that enwrapped me like a blanket. Maybe it was because of the latest falling-and-failing, I went through that I felt like losing myself in this mysterious forest.

I found the atmosphere of the trees and leafs oddly relaxing and if I had the time I was sure that I would search a nice place for a nap on the soft earth which was covered with fallen leaves, grass and moss. But unfortunately, ever since I became engulfed in the world of a true Shinobi (or in other words—ever since I finished the academy), taking time for pleasant things had become a kind of impossible thing. This thought usually didn't bother me too much but after all the latest trouble, I wished for some peace. And sleep. (Mainly sleep.)

Trying to remember who exactly of the shinigami stayed with the injured kid-taichou, the few of Sasuke's 'friends' who stayed also behind made me frown. Hoshizaki Suigetsu was a white haired, big- and bad-mouthed jerk and who was getting on my nerves the moment I saw him. It was just the way he always tried to play things low—like life was a huge game where every reason to take something serious was a special card that only occurred when someone tried to beat him into a bloody pulp. And that was exactly what I would be doing when he tried to be smart with me.

Sasuke's other friend was a girl that, a few years ago, I would have killed with great pleasure for being by the heir's side when I wasn't allowed to. She actually was pretty but the few times I saw her, the only memorable thing about her was that she seemingly could stand Suigetsu as much as I could.

The voices became much clearer with every step I took and when I turned around the next corner, I felt something fly at me. More precisely—_someone_ fly at me. Suigetsu sailed right at my head and I dodged the body before jumping upwards as soon as his feet weren't over my head anymore because someone had been so clever to throw his sword, too. Glaring daggers, I saw Karin standing in front of me and looking almost apologetically. "Oh, it's you," she said and indicated a light bow since I was her superior. "Well, sorry that this _jerk_ has almost hit you but you know him, don't you? Or at least a bit. He's just too damn difficult to deal with, right? Man, I actually want to rip his head off for real."

While Karin rambled, I could only stare at her. This was the first time, we talked more than a few words and I had forgotten how rough she was in her choice of words. I cleared my voice and smiled though she couldn't see it since fortunately, my mask still covered my face. "If you want to rip his head off, do it now. It would be too suspicious in Konoha. Somebody there could notice that he's gone missing." The redhead smirked and turned to the right. "True. So, anyway, I guess these two are the real reason you came checking on us. The big one's a total hothead, don't let your female pride suffer under him or else my little respect for you is gone as fast as it came."

She really was a strange girl—getting on my nerves but at the same time being a little bit likeable, too.  
My gaze turned to the same point Karin was looking at and I saw a really tall man, dressed in shinigami clothes, who was bent over an absolutely adoringly looking boy who wore the same white thing over his shinigami robes as Kuchiki-taichou and therefore identified himself as the kid-taichou. They were both sitting on a fallen, old trunk that looked like it would break every second. The kid-taichou was glaring at the tall redhead whose hair was bound into a high ponytail. The strands of hair pointed in almost every direction and from the point where I stood, his hairstyle slightly resembled a flame.

"Abarai… You are not qualified to do healing kido, going to this damn clearing won't kill me!" the kid-taichou snarled. A short strand of white hair was hanging over his forehead, while the rest was messed into soft spikes and he had teal eyes which looked rather cold. His voice was low and husky and I found myself thinking that he probably looked like a kid on the outside at first glance but once he opened his mouth or glared at you, the dream was destroyed. "No, Hitsugaya-taichou, believe me, this looks really serious!"

'Abarai' started to mutter words and 'Hitsugaya'-taichou looked angrier after every syllable that left the taller shinigami's mouth. I approached them but after a few steps, I stopped. My senses were set on fire—the Reiatsu of Abarai was pushed into such a pressuring amount in his hands that even I could feel it as clearly as if it were Chakra. "Hey, sorry but could you stop your 'healing'?" My voice was hurried and I took a step to the right, so that Abarai could see me better. He looked upwards and once he saw me, he was clearly irritated. At the same time, I noticed odd black tattoos where his eyebrows should be and how those tattoos continued to make their way up to his hairline. "Stop- Shit!" The energy was emerging from his hands, shining an alarming light shade of green and shot away from his hands.

I'm not sure if it was because Abarai looked or thought of _me_ but the energy shot straight into _my_ direction and then further into my face, sending me flying backwards like a fist had collided with the hard material of my Anbu-mask. I could feel said mask break and melt at the same time and only because my hands were gloved, I could manage to rip the heated mask away from my face, seconds before I crashed into a tree and the energy continued to rip the mask with it into the wood. I had moved my head fast enough to the side so that the burning hot green 'healing kido' didn't turn my skin into something that looked like it once had belonged to _anything_ but a human face.

Fury. Furyfuryfury. That was all I felt. My heart pumped tons of adrenaline through into blood until I felt ready to tear a diamond apart with bare hands and I rose from the crashed tree, small splinters of my beloved Anbu-mask falling from my face and small pieces of the trunk piercing through my clothes. "Are you okay?" Karin was at my side and looked at the reddish skin of my face that felt hot and sensitive but was unhurt otherwise. "Yes. Felt worse," I grumbled and then went towards Abarai. He cringed. I gripped the material of his black robe and pulled him closer to me so that our noses were almost touching.  
"You have destroyed my mask. You will _pay_."

My fist released his robe and I turned to Hitsugaya-taichou without any sign that I just threated a shinigami for the first time in my life. "I believe you are Hitsugaya-taichou and you are injured. Is that correct?" I endeavoured myself to smile nicely—I still wanted to proof Kakashi that I could be an extremely caring medic. Even after the loss of my unique Anbu-mask and the loss of my pride as a high positioned Shinobi. Slipping my fingers into the hair bun at the back of my head, I pulled at the right strands and let my pink coloured hair fall down my back. I had let it grow since Pain attacked our village and it was reaching my shoulder blades by now.

Hitsugaya-taichou stared at me and I had no idea what he was thinking. "Yes, I am injured but I can be treated by one of our own healers." I knelt down and peered at his shoulder where blood was seeping through his white taichou robe. "Well, I wouldn't have been asked if there was someone who could do the job." The pause I made was used to give Abarai a glare—he should know by now that _he_ wasn't qualified to do the job. "You have nothing to worry about, Hitsugaya-taichou. I am trained to do this; I am even working in our hospital. And plus, I can't use any energy on you since I don't have Reiatsu. I'll just look at this and later, someone of you shinigami can treat you if that is more comfortable to you." The white haired captain didn't say anything at first but after half a second had passed, he nodded. "Fine, take a look at it."

To me, that sounded like "Take a look at it but if you're like the red idiot, I'll chop you to pieces". So… This was the first patient I couldn't make the smallest mistake on. I was sure that he would kill me for it and there were actually a few things that I still wanted to do in life before passing on. "Okay, please take off this white thing first." He looked at me while he did what I said and on the inside, I became more and more nervous. This piercing stare of his was honestly freaking me a little bit out. "Now please remove the black robes and the white robes underneath from this shoulder." Again, he penetrated me with an icy stare while he followed my words and I was glad to see the wound at his shoulder so that I had an excuse to avoid his eyes.

My fingers stroked over the already dry edge of the wound and I slightly pulled his shoulder forward to see if whatever caused the injury had pierced through. The skin on his back was, however, smooth and even and not slightly scratched. In general… his skin really started to impress me. Though with gloves on, it felt cool but really soft and looked so pale that it seemed almost white next to the black of his robe. "Hm. What has caused this injury?" I asked and Hitsugaya-taichou sighed. "I didn't pay much attention to those three morons that got into a fight and was carrying my lieutenant. Something that you would call 'Kunai' hit me before I really noticed."

Listening, I stripped off my gloves and stroked over the edges again, this time with bare fingers and chakra in my fingertips so that I could feel better. Something seemed odd about this wound. The edges were dry already and starting to become healed, too, but the middle was excreting a colourless secret and far away from drying and/or closing. My hands were feeling the temperature of the skin around the wound—it was average. Next, I reached around to let my hands wander over his back again. Everything there was normal. _This becomes stranger and stranger_, I though and paid attention to my hands never leaving the shinigami's skin. I didn't want to miss the smallest thing.

When I felt the white haired captain shiver, I took a quick glance at his face. The slightest shade of pink tinted his cheeks while he looked into the opposite direction of my face. Was something the problem…? Maybe the amount of the Chakra I had used had been too much already, so that it had seeped into his body and he now felt my chakra circle inside him. Whatever had made him uncomfortable—I definitely adored his face at the moment and couldn't stop a small smile grow on my lips.

"Hitsugaya-taichou…! Oooh, how sweet! What a lovely nurse you've gotten youself! This must be the first time that a woman touches you with such _tenderness_… It is really a pleasure to see how much you've grown, sir, a real pleasure. Maybe you can now understand the joy I feel while spending time with men!"  
The strawberry-blonde woman from under the tree had appeared beside me in a sudden and patted my shoulder as if she had actually talked to me and not to her superior. Her eyes rested on my face, too, and then switched to Hitsugaya-taichou who looked like he would explode every minute with cheeks that had taken a darker colour now and eyes that were glaring in a killing way. His lips were pressed into a grim line when he shoved my hands away and rose on his feet, now looking down at the strawberry-blonde and me. Maybe you can't believe it but from this perspective, I lost every kid image of him. (He was simply _impressive_.) 

"Matsumoto, you have no idea what you're talking about," Hitsugaya-taichou scolded and glared at her at the same time. (And at me, too—where did he get the right to do that?) Instinctively, I wanted to snap at him before I could really think things through but by distracting myself with pulling out two rolls of bandage of the pocket at my hip, I managed, to keep my mouth shut.

"If you feel dizzy or have pain—wherever it may be—or suddenly get shivering fits, come to me. It's possible that the kunai was poisoned. It's common among good Shinobi to upgrade small weapons with poisons or explosive substances. Really, don't hesitate! Since it isn't an injury that was inflicted by the Shinobi itself and therefore isn't nearly as deep, the poison could be only very slow working and I believe that none of Shinigami poisons are like the ones we use here." My babbling seemed to pull Hitsugaya-taichou away from the topic of his lieutenant's cheekiness and Matsumoto looked at me worriedly. "What do you mean, poisoned?" she asked, a little bit horrified.  
This woman irritated me. I gave her a confused look. "That there could have been poison on the kunai." _What else was there to mean with poisoned?_ I rose from my kneeling position and pushed the captain down on the trunk again. "Why have you reached consciousness anyway?" I muttered to the busty woman and she rose, too. "Haha! I've hurt from your companions that you're an extraordinary healer, the best in this side of the country! So you must have done a really good job. Thank you very much for patching me up, Sakura-chan!"

My green eyes shot immediately to her face and burned a killer glare into her eyes. "Did you just call me 'Sakura-chan'?" My quivering voice shivered a bit from supressed anger and only the almost non-existent yelp of Hitsugaya-taichou let me relax again. "God, I'm sorry, sir." I adjusted the bandages that I had pulled too tough and bit my bottom lip. "That won't happen again." But how my name had slipped past my Anbu-self angered me so unbelievably much… I just couldn't believe it that this grave mistake had happened!

The captain gave me a quick raise of his eyebrows, before closing his eyes. That seemed to mean "Continue", so I picked up the bandages again and continued. "Why haven't you just introduced yourself to me anyway?" the Taichou suddenly asked and this time, the lieutenant shoved herself into my field of view, too, since she had placed herself next to her captain. Her baby blue orbs were _so_ filled with curiosity that I wondered if it would form the words "Tell me, tell me".

"Well, you see, it's common for us Shinobi to be more reserved the higher positioned we are. Anbu is a secret special unit that is dependent on its faceless, nameless and most importantly extremely loyal members. If I were running around and introducing myself as 'Sakura', the criminals that know of the Anbu can come to Konoha to hunt me down. So telling my name kills my work as an Anbu off very effectively. But maybe it doesn't really matter now because you're shinigami—not from here. You're finished."

I moved a few steps back to have a better look at my work. "This looks good. If you have more confidence in my skills later on, I would be honoured if you let me have a second look on this, Hitsugaya-taichou." I bowed and he looked pleased. "Of course," he told me in a curt tone and pulled his robes on again, fixing his clothes into a tidy appearance. Though he couldn't remove the blood stain now, of course. "See, Matsumoto? That is the respect I miss with you and some other shinigami. Shinobi seem to respect their superiors." With great amusement, I watched Matsumoto pout and cross her arms over her (overly large-sized) breast and turn slightly away from her captain. "You're so mean!"

Hitsugaya-taichou obviously found that quite satisfying and then started to walk. "Let's go back; we don't want to make the others worry any more than they already do, do we." My feet started to walk, too, but I turned around to ask Matsumoto, where she actually got my name from, when Hitsugaya-taichou called and interrupted me in my attempt. "Sakura-san." Turning around, I smiled at him and titled my head slightly, walking a bit faster so that I could walk next to him. The leafs had stopped radiating light and the forest had gotten a much cooler atmosphere than before. The sun was half hidden behind a cloud so that it had turned into a before-the-storm-atmosphere everywhere. Maybe it would start to rain sometime soon.

"What is it, Hitsugaya-taichou?" The white haired shinigami crossed his arms like Matsumoto (who was walking and bickering with Karin right behind us) had before and then looked up at me. "Is there anything I could do to bring back your mask?" Since I hadn't really continued to think about it, I now remembered Abarai who had smashed it in the first place. But he was gone somehow and I was glad about that—otherwise I would have finally punched him in that tattooed face of his. Hitsugaya-taichou on the other hand hadn't really had something to do with it, right? Fondly, I shook my head. "It's nice of you to ask but this mask cannot be repaired. I can just hope a new one will be made for me."

The shinigami frowned. "So it is something unique? Has it some kind of power?" He must have thought of his sword, since he threw a quick glance at it over his shoulder. "No, not really but the first Anbu-mask is something precious for me. It's a sign that you're part of a really close knitted team. When you're Anbu, there are no 'buts' or 'ifs'. No job's too dirty or too hard. You're away from home for half a year or longer. Sometimes, you don't sleep for a week or you don't eat for two days; sometimes you're half dead every second day of a one-month-mission until you get healed in the evening. It is my job to patch the people up but occasionally, the normal Anbu-mission occurs for me, too."

He had listened to my report and was now obviously thinking about it. But who wouldn't? What I had described sounded more like the life of a refugee or a hunted criminal. The good guys weren't supposed to have a life like that, were they?

"That sounds tough."

I shrugged. It was something you had to go through if you wanted to have your beloved village safe. "Thanks." He didn't say anything about a Shinigami's education. That told me, it was kind of tough, too.

**Rukia PoV  
**

Rukia had been relieved to see her brother, yes. She had seen that one spark in his eye that had told her, he was kind of glad to see her, too. But seeing her brother was nothing like seeing the relieve on Ichigo's face after he had ended his talk with Kakashi und had turned around, only to see her standing there and smiling at him. Ichigo had tackled her to the ground then and had ruffled through her hair. They had talked and Rukia had felt happy to see him and honoured that he once more came to her rescue without blaming her for getting in danger again.

But when Renji came sprinting out of the wood, a haunted expression on his face, Rukia had been fast to ask herself why she felt tons of worry fall over her since something could have happened to Sakura. And after Renji had swept her off the ground and nearly hugged her to death, the Kuchiki had pressed every detail out of him. She had been horrified to hear how he had smashed Sakura's mask. Her mask. When her identity should have been stayed protected. Unfortunately, when Sakura's name slipped over Rukia's lips while she had scolded Renji, she had increased the destruction of the identity-protection even more. And when it came out that Matsumoto had listened to their conversation the whole time and was now on the way to pair off her captain with his nurse-for-the-moment, Rukia had felt honestly ashamed of herself. The only thing, Rukia had allowed herself to hope for was that Sakura wouldn't be too angry with her in the end.

Now, however, the black haired shinigami was lecturing Renji on not only _using_ healing kido when he was clearly told not to, but also on becoming so easily distracted. "Honestly Renji, when we're back, I will be teaching you kido so much that you afterwards won't even remember your own name without using it to heal your short-term memory." The eyes of the much taller lieutenant widened. "What? Are you mad? I don't have that much time! Your brother is my captain, remember? And I have to eat and sleep, too." Rukia smiled a sweet smile and titled her head. "You don't _need_ sleep, Renji," the girl gave as an answer and seemed to have ended the conversation with this final statement.

Ichigo snickered gloatingly and Rukia glanced at him with raised eyebrows. "You know… Just in general—I would have gotten back on my own, too. It's not that I've been captured by the Shinobi. They invited me to stay and I knew that I had missed the gate's opening time and would have to wait." The orange haired substitute snickered and waved his hand almost in front of her face as if waving her words away. "Of course, you would have come back on your own. Like the one time you went out to the convenience store to buy a new manga and _came back on your own._" Rukia snorted at his words and crossed her arms, smirking knowingly. "Only because I got too much into the magazines and sweets. You're such an idiot, Ichigo. I think you have forgotten who found you back in Hueco Mundo _on her own_!"

Renji butted in by shoving the two other Shinigami away from each other since they had leaned over to do the best killer glare they had at each other. "You forget that I was there, too, Rukia," the redhead reminded his childhood friend but the look Rukia gave him said, he shouldn't have said something. "Well, then you don't count," said childhood friend hissed and turned away from him. "You midget!" Renji roared and wanted to grab Rukia around the waist when he noticed someone standing right next to him.

"Abarai. What do you think you're going?" Renji pulled his hands back and smiled nervously. "Nothing, Taichou, nothing… I was just… uh… about to fix… Rukia's collar." And with those words, Renji reached forward and smoothed Rukia's collar out so that it was free of creases. Seconds before he moved his hands away, he saw Rukia smirking at him again and—since she wasn't directly facing Byakuya—forming the word 'Coward' with her lips. It was hard to stay calm while he pressed his hands against his sides to hinder himself from strangling her. And Rukia enjoyed this side very much.

"Renji-kuuun…!"

Matsumoto waved her hand over her hand and the called one spun around hectically—he hadn't forgotten the mask-shattering incident and that the former owner of the mask was most likely accompanying the other lieutenant. Rukia took a few steps towards the arriving Shinigami and Shinobi and spotted Matsumoto and a girl with long red hair and glasses at the front, while Hitsugaya-taichou and Sakura were walking behind them.

Sakura lifted her hand and smiled. Her face seemed unhurt—good for Renji. "Rukia," the rosette greeted and stopped in front of the smaller girl with a smile and Hitsugaya-taichou at her side. They seemed oddly matching for each other, Rukia noticed, like they had just cleared up a fight between them. But maybe that was just her imagination. People tended to tell that about Ichigo and her, too, and they never had a fight to clear up. "What's up? You look… I don't know. Excited?" Sakura asked and titled her head to the side. Rukia saw her with her hair first down for the first time—she looked much kinder and five years younger, about sixteen maybe.

Ichigo joined them in their little circle and leaned on Rukia's head like he usually did; Rukia didn't even notice anymore. But she did notice Sakura's quick glare at the orange head that disappeared so fast that Rukia was sure, she had imagined it. "No, not at all. Nothing happened. Or well—I've heard about the accident." Sakura looked down at her companion. "Yeah, it was a kunai." Rukai frowned. Kunai? Didn't Renji say something about kido? "Fortunately, Hitsugaya-taichou most likely wasn't poisoned. He's safe for now, it seems but I hope I can talk all of you shinigami into a longer stay so that I can watch him for a bit."

The Kuchiki stared at Sakura and then looked at Hitsugaya. The rosette sounded a bit like Rukia was Hitsugaya's mother and she would like to keep cute little Shiro-chan in kindergarten a bit longer than planned. "Oh... Really?" Rukia muttered to hide the giggle she felt tickling at the tip of her tongue. "I would like to stay longer. Of course I'm not happy about your injury, Hitsugaya-taichou." The white haired captain nodded curtly and glared at Sakura. Rukia could imagine why—Sakura treated him unconsciously like a kid. She wouldn't like that, too.

"Aaah, Toshiro, finally, you've got a respectful treatment." Ichigo laughed and Toshiro longed after his sword. "Kurosaki… You and your big mouth are going on my nerves the moment that crazy Uchiha bastard stepped out of the shadows… Shut up!" Rukia wanted to say something but Sakura was faster. The rosette stepped between them and looked unsure of what to do for a few seconds before she just raised her hands. "Guys, stop okay? We already had more than enough male egos crashing against each other today. So, calm down." She looked at Ichigo, mischievous challenge could be seen in her green eyes. "Maybe you're just jealous that he gets the treatment you desire," Sakura muttered in a voice which was merely loud enough for Ichigo and Rukia to hear. The black haired shinigami wondered, _Why does Sakura provoke Ichigo with such pleasure?_, but shrugged it off—she would have to ask her friend later about that sentence.

"Oi... Why isn't there a mask on your face?" The Anbu with the dog mask had appeared next to Sakura and leaned onto her shoulder, bending down next to her so that his masked face was next to hers. "That doesn't suit your dutifully character, girl." He moved away and Sakura had pink tinted cheeks. Rukia smiled at the image—a teacher scolding his student. She would recognize this kind of blushing everywhere. "And here goes the kid-taichou! I believe my girl has patched you up alright, huh?"

Rukia had never met a man who spoke with such obliviousness in his voice. That actually _was_ admirable, wasn't it? "I am not a kid. I am more than four times your age. I am a captain. … Oh, whatever." Hitsugaya abruptly stopped and suddenly looked at Rukia. She looked straight back and felt ice Reiatsu like her own. "At least the reason of this little adventure is safe…"

The other Anbu with the ghost-mask appeared next to the dog-mask and nodded away from their little group. "Well, Sakura. Your two friends need treatment. It would be good if you would fly ahead. Sai has agreed to it already," he told the rosette and Sai walked up to them and slightly touched Rukia's arm when he stopped beside her. "Do you want to fly back with us, Rukia?" She smiled at him—flying had really been nice. "Uh–" "Rukia, who's this clown?" Ichigo was nearly holding her up in the air to prevent her from getting closer to the "clown" but the Kuchiki only sighed. "He's a friend," Rukia said to Ichigo and turned back to face Sai. "Thanks but I think it would be better if I went on foot." The body of the other boy tensed a bit. "Would you like me to accompany you?" "And how are we supposed to fly?" Sakura interrupted and did a quick glance around the clearing. "We have four people who need medical treatment!"

Sakura stared at Rukia in thought and then snickered while her eyes wandered from Rukia to Sai and back. "Well, you two… or three… can discuss things later when we have tended every scratch and have showered, okay? Sai, you're coming with us." Rukia smirked—she was really a bit relieved that she had time to sort things out with Ichigo. And Sai wasn't running away from her, was he? And she was sure, Byakuya and Renji (who were talking quietly a few feet away) wanted to talk a few words with her, too.

"So, see you later, guys. Sakura." Rukia smiled and the rosette grinned back. Sai made a huge hawk like the one he, Sakura, Naruto and herself came and the black haired Kuchiki watched, as the two Anbus carried an unconscious Orhime on the bird, followed by two unconscious guys (one was Naruto, the other one was the crazy black haired one whose name Rukia didn't really know) and an angry looking Hitsugaya-taichou who was feeling obviously uncomfortable—again. After some fighting between Sai and Sakura, the white haired captain slipped between them and remained there; sitting cross-legged and still grumpy like a separating wall between the two Anbu and then, the hawk flew off to Konoha with a first jump into the air and then with swift motions of its large wings, it disappeared behind large treetops.

Rukia watched it disappear and really hoped, the time she could spend here would only improve. 

**To be continued…**

A/N:

Sorry again for the long waiting! But I wish everyone a nice spring time, sun's finally coming out for a bit. (Or at least it does, where I live.)

I OWN NEITHER Naruto NOR Bleach. IT IS OWNED BY Masashi Kishimoto AND Tite Kubo. I DON'T OWN MONEY WITH THIS.

I hope everyone liked this chapter, I put a lot effort in it because this Hitsugaya-taichou-scene was a bit important. |D Some of the commenting readers wanted HitsuSaku so… Yeah. They've met and are flying off into the sunset- I mean to the hospital.

Let's see what will happen next guys! 

**Suggestions are always welcome.**

xoxo Kissufication


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